The Performance of Public Sector Enterprises: 1981-1986

This paper examines the operational performance of seven public sector enterprises in the large-scale manufacturing sector which include the Federal Chemical and Ceramics Corporation (FCCCL), National Fertilizer Corporation (NFC), Pakistan Automobile Corporation (PACO), Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), State Cement Corporation of Pakistan (SCCP), State Engineering Corporation (SEC), and State Petroleum Refining and Petro-chemical Corporation (PERAC). Together, these seven corporations have some 67 units under their control. Performance assessment can be undertaken in financial and economic terms. Under the former, the key indicators of performance include profitability ratios such as the Gross Profit Ratio, the Return on Investment Ratio, and the Return on Equity Ratio. Other financial ratios include the Debt: Equity Ratio, the Current Ratio, the Acid Test Ratio, the Asset Turnover Ratio, the Return on Asset Ratio, and the Net Profit Margin Ratio. These ratios may also be called Solvency and liquidity Ratios as they measure the financial performance of the enterprise concerned. The measures listed above dealing with the financial profitability of enterprises are estimated in the annual reports of the Experts Advisory Cell, of the Ministry of Production, Government of Pakistan.