SOEs' debt soars to Rs10.1 trillion

The Central Monitoring Unit (CMU) of the finance ministry reported that state-owned enterprise debt climbed to a record Rs10.1 trillion by end-December 2025, up Rs1.3 trillion or 14.3% from a year earlier. That total sits Rs7.1 trillion above the Rs2.95 trillion the State Bank of Pakistan recorded for SOE debt and liabilities. According to The Express Tribune, the ministry released the findings on Monday in its monitoring report covering July to December 2025.

Losses and state support both rose. Loss-making SOEs recorded losses of Rs2.8 billion per working day, or about Rs730 billion a year, while fiscal support reached nearly Rs6.6 billion per day. Taken together, the ministry put the annual impact at Rs2.5 trillion, which exceeds this fiscal year's federal development budget by Rs1.5 trillion.

Power-sector circular debt also rose, reaching Rs3.3 trillion according to the CMU, even after restructuring and partial warehousing of liabilities. The report warned that IFRS 9 expected credit loss provisioning in the oil and gas sector could approach Rs500 billion, which it said could weigh on profitability, retained earnings and dividend flows. The ministry argued that debt re-profiling alone is insufficient without operational reforms in generation, transmission, distribution and recovery.