The Finance Division has clarified that the reported Rs. 10.1 trillion debt of federal state-owned enterprises (SOEs) represents the consolidated stock of interest-bearing liabilities and does not reflect fresh borrowing of the same amount.
The clarification came after a comparison was made between the Rs. 10.1 trillion figure reported by the Central Monitoring Unit (CMU) and narrower State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data. The Finance Division said fresh and additional borrowing during the reporting period stood at around Rs. 164 billion, while the overall SOE debt stock increased from approximately Rs. 8.8 trillion to Rs. 10.1 trillion.
According to the division, the two datasets measure different categories of liabilities. The SBP’s Rs. 2.954 trillion figure covers public sector enterprise borrowing and credit obtained from the banking system, whereas the CMU uses a broader measure of federal SOE interest-bearing liabilities for fiscal risk monitoring.
The CMU figure includes Rs. 2.098 trillion in Cash Development Loans, Rs. 2.581 trillion in foreign re-lent loans, Rs. 3.102 trillion in bank and private loans, Rs. 2.181 trillion in accrued markup and rollover costs, and Rs. 135 billion in other interest-bearing obligations.
The Finance Division said bank and private-sector loans account for around Rs. 3.1 trillion of the consolidated debt stock. The remaining liabilities mainly comprise government lending, foreign re-lent loans, accumulated markup and rollover costs, and other interest-bearing obligations.
It added that changes in the total debt stock do not necessarily represent new borrowing, as they can also result from changes in existing government lending, foreign re-lent loans and accumulated financial obligations.
The Finance Division said the broader CMU framework gives the government and the Cabinet Committee on State Owned Enterprises a more comprehensive assessment of SOE indebtedness and related fiscal risks.
It concluded that directly comparing the Rs. 10.1 trillion CMU figure with the narrower SBP banking-sector data is not methodologically valid.
