recent judgment passed by the Islamabad High Court (vide WP No 630 of 2013), declaring the present notification as “unconstitutional” and restoring the Gas Load Management Policy of 2005 under which both CNG and general industries are placed at priority No 4 instead of 6, Sulemanjee explained.
“We demand an immediate embargo and strict action against illegal CNG compressors and storage cascades being used in other sectors, so that the alarming increase in the Unaccounted for Gas (UFG) could be curbed,” he said. “All CNG stations operating in the SITE Area should be converted into a dedicated gas pipeline network in order to avoid extreme low pressures caused by the high number CNG stations in that locality.”
The organisations also demanded the withdrawal of the proposal of increasing gas tariff for the CNG Sector with effect from April 1, 2015.
He pointed out that the prices of crude oil in the international market had fallen drastically from $120 per barrel to $45 per barrel. “Thus, the basic determination of the gas tariff is also linked with the international crude oil prices,” he said.
He said as per the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority Ordinance, the revised notification of gas tariff can be issued twice a year, either on January 1 or July 1 of the fiscal year. Keeping this in mind, said Sulemanjee, there seems to be no justification to increase the CNG tariff. It should be reduced in light of the present scenario of low crude oil prices in the international market.
He was of the view that the current proposal to increase the gas prices and unusual load shedding for CNG sector in Sindh was being done with dubious intentions for introducing LNG and eliminating CNG as a fuel. When there will be no difference between the prices of CNG and petrol, the consumer will abandon gas as a fuel.
In 2003, the Supreme Court of Pakistan following a suo-moto notice had ordered to convert all public transport vehicles from diesel to CNG, to curb the rising pollution.
This decision was endorsed by the environmental commission, who issued a similar directive.
The CNG sector in Sindh consumes only two percent of the total gas consumption of the country and contributes multiple times in terms of revenue to the national exchequer, by direct and indirect employment of around 400,000 people.
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