No govt financing, sovereign-guaranteed loans for new PIA aircraft: adviser to finmin
Adviser to the Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad clarified on Sunday that the government was not buying any aircraft for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), which was privatised through an auction in December last year. “The government is neither buying aircraft for a privatised PIA, nor has it announced any sovereign guarantee of taxpayer-funded loan for doing so,” Schehzad posted on X…
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb discussed potential aircraft financing for Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) with John Jovanovich, Chair of the US Export-Import (Exim) Bank, during a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. However, Khurram Schehzad, the adviser to the Finance Minister, clarified on Sunday that the government is not purchasing any aircraft for the privatised PIA nor has it announced any sovereign guarantee of taxpayer-funded loans for this purpose.
Schehzad explained that the US Exim's mandate is to support the exports of its country, not to provide funding specifically for a privatised airline. The finance minister had mentioned PIA's interest in Boeing's 787 Dreamliners and sought support for a financing package covering the aircraft and engines, but Schehzad stressed that a sovereign guarantee is not an automatic requirement.
The government's role, he added, is to facilitate international financing, technology, and suppliers for businesses, not to run them directly. The discussions between Aurangzeb and Jovanovich covered potential financing for various sectors, including aviation, refinery upgrades, and the Reko Diq project, as part of a broader Pakistan-US economic engagement.
Written by urgent.news from Dawn Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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