During the recent privatisation of PPL by the government I had submitted my application with the Habib Bank Limited, Bahadurabad branch. Although the notice in the newspapers clearly said the price of Rs 55/- share for a minimum lot of 500 shares included all fees and charges, to my surprise the bank branch charged Rs 10 per application form.

Although this is a negligible amount, but as compared to the number of applications that they must have accepted over a 4-day period for an issue which is expected to be many times oversubscribed, the bank must have made a handsome amount.

I want to bring this to the notice of the Privatisation Commission that while appointing bankers for future offloading of government shares to the general public because no other bank is charging a fee of this kind.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2004