Corporate Annual Reports
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
Westroidge, Rawalpindi
We received by mail 10 copies of the PTCL Annual Report, one for each member of the family who holds a ten rupee share in it. Millions of others too would have received the report. Consisting of 136 pages and bound in a glossy, attractive paperback, the document looks elegant and expensive. Besides its compilation, its printing too must have cost a fortune to the PTCL and, by default, its shareholders.
I have been receiving similar annual reports of the Askari Bank and other corporations for the last many years but never for once have I read them or tried to know what they contain. As a matter of fact, the corporate information, the vision, the operating highlights, the financial analyses, the pictures, profiles, statistics, charts, balance sheets, etc. do not interest me in the least and serve no purpose except that our cook sells them by weight to the kabaria for a few pennies.
The PTCL and other mega corporations must be having millions of shareholders falling in my category and even more ‘illiterate’ than me in such corporate affairs. Why send them such bulky and highly professional reports which they never read? And if it is some legal requirement, print a couple of dozens in the present format only for those who must have them and for the rest of the millions a simple one-page balance sheet and a little gist of corporate information should suffice to fulfil the legal formalities. I think it will save billions in time and effort on the preparation, printing and dispatch of such high-priced documents, and the savings could be passed on to the shareholders in the form of increased dividends.
Talking of the dividends, periodically checks are dispatched to the shareholders in millions either by registered mail or courier service, which cost at least Rs.20 to 25 per check mailed. Every shareholder has a bank account through which he/she has applied initially for the shares. In this computer age the dividends could automatically be credited into the bank accounts which will again save a colossal amount that could be passed on to the shareholders. Am I talking something beyond the comprehension of the mighty actuaries involved?
