It’s a deep-rooted conspiracy against govt, claims Dar

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday claimed that the petrol crisis was a deep-rooted conspiracy against the government, while Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi admitted that he was responsible for the crisis, which had exposed the masses in Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to great suffering.
Addressing media persons separately here on Monday evening after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the petrol crisis, Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said he was ashamed of the crisis; however, he had not anticipated the huge increase in the demand for petrol. Abbasi said he was not aware of any deep conspiracy in the shape of the petrol crisis against the PML-N government.
A committee, headed by Adviser to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources Zahid Muzzafar, has been constituted which will be looking into the causes of the petrol crisis and will identify the responsible persons for the unprecedented mess.
After the report of the committee, action will be taken against the responsible officials. The minister also said petrol prices will tumble from February 1 by Rs5 per litre.The minister said that the basic reason for the petrol crisis was an increase in demand by 30 percent. “In the month of December, the country’s demand was at 12,000 tonnes per day which swelled to 15,000 tonnes in January and in one day alone, 40,000 tonnes of petrol was soldarguing that owing to decline in petrol prices that became equal to prices of CNG, masses increased the usage of petrol giving birth to the unprecedented crisis.
The prime minister, he said, showed his extreme displeasure over the difficulties being faced by the people due to non-availability of fuel. Nawaz said that the crisis was a proof of incompetence and the responsible officials should be ready for penalty.
Nawaz was informed that measures are being taken to provide immediate relief to the people as 15,600 ton of petrol was supplied on Monday all over the country against an average daily consumption of 12,000 ton.
The prime minister was informed that additional supply of petrol would be ensured in the coming month.Talking about power situation, the prime minister directed the Ministry of Water and Power to immediately work to reduce line losses and recover outstanding amount of more than Rs500 billion in order to clear the amounts due to the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and other liabilities.
The minister said the government is taking the required steps to cope with the crisis in the minimum time, and, to this effect, has increased the petrol supply up to 15,000 ton in the country which is 30 percent higher than the normal supplies. He said that the current supply of petrol to Lahore stands at 1,600,000 litre which is double than the earlier supply. In Rawalpindi, the minister said, the petrol supply has been increased to 500,000 litre from 400,000 litre, and in Islamabad, supply has been increased to 600,000 litre from 455,000 litre. The minister hoped that the petrol crisis will come to an end in the ongoing week.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the prime minister has taken the cognisance of the situation and has taken some decisions to this effect. “The government is taking some steps to arrange additional petrol for the country.”
Under the decision taken by the premier, the Finance Ministry will continue to extend help to the PSO, and the Ministry of Water and Power has been asked to resolve the issue of circular debt which has adversely impacted the financial health of the PSO.
The minister requested the masses to show patience. He tried to appease the masses in the press briefing, saying that the masses will get the more reduction in petrol price by Rs5 per litre from February 1.
He said that since there is no CNG available in Punjab which is why the consumption of petrol has increased manifold. To a question, he said it is not possible to provide CNG in whole province of Punjab as the domestic consumers will be affected if the government decided to provide CNG in the province. He said that the petrol crisis has nothing to do with circular debt and for the month of February L/Cs have been opened for more import of petrol.
He said the prime minister has asked the Finance Ministry to bail out the PSO from the financial crunch and enable it to ensure smooth import of petroleum products in the country.
Abbasi lashed out at the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and said it was its responsibility to monitor the stocks position as per the terms and conditions of the licences given to oil marketing companies and take action accordingly.
Since the country has no required fuel storage capacity which is why some fuel is kept in storages and some is kept in ships, and some quantity is kept in vehicles and this is how the issue is being tackled, the minister disclosed.
With the perpetual dwindling of POL prices, the FBR has sustained losses of Rs100 billion but with increase in consumption, the tax collecting authorities will start getting some benefits too. For LNG negotiation, the minister said, the MD PSO and MD inter-state gas system along with senior officials have left Pakistan for Qatar. To a question, he said Saifur Rehman has nothing to do with expected LNG deal.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference separately here, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said petrol crisis was the result of bad governance and mismanagement on the part of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources.He said as part of government and as a charted accountant he was of the view that petrol crisis was a deep-rooted conspiracy and the government would take it to its logical end.
He said in the January 10 meeting of the ECC, the DG Oil said petrol was enough for 18 days based on the January 6 report and according to the report fuel crisis should not have emerged till January 24, but the people in the Punjab and KP started experiencing petrol shortage much before January 24, which was being looked into.
He said there were reports that the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) had not ensured the availability of ship for the import of petrol, but all these issues will be looked into.
He said the oil marketing companies (OMCs) were bound to maintain reserves for 20 days and it would be investigated why they could not maintain reserves and why Ogra failed to check oil stocks on time.
Dar said the Ministry of Finance had nothing to do with the business of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and other OMCs. He said Ogra failed to keep surveillance on the stocks of OMCs. The finance minister said OMCs provide 60 percent petrol in the country and to this effect their performance had embarrassed the government by not maintaining the stocks.
He said the electronic media ran speculative stories referring to sources in the PSO and held the Ministry of Finance responsible for the fuel crisis. He said it was a blatant lie that the ministry was responsible for all this mess.
He said the ministry was updated on paying subsidy to power sector and on Monday the ministry released Rs10 billion on the demand of the Ministry of Water and Power. He said the Finance Ministry had nothing to do with the sale proceeds of the PSO.
“It is the Ministry of Petroleum that has the job to oversee all the petroleum and gas related issues. The Ministry of Finance does not owe even one rupee to the PSO. Sometimes, the ministry comes forward to bail out the PSO knowing the fact that it has nothing to do with the PSO business, but being the part of government, the Finance Ministry bails out the PSO off and on,” he said.
Highlighting the salient feature of his recent visit to Japan, the minister said he met the top functionaries of Japan, including the representatives of JICA, JETRO, JBIC and bridged the information gap about the Pakistan’s economy.
He said the top officials of Japan were stuck to economic developments till June 2013 and they were not updated by the latest measure taken by the government. He said JBIC (Japan Bank of International Corporation) had restored the ODA (official development assistance) loan and would not provide loan of $850 million (one billion yen) for coal-based Lakhra Power House.
He said Pak-Japan dialogue business forum had not met for the last two years and now it had been reactivated and to this effect in May, Pak-Japan dialogue will be held.
He said Yamaha plant based on new technology will be operational in Pakistan by end April and to this effect a sizeable investment will come from Japan. He said JICA had complained to the Government of Pakistan that its name had been included in the petition as respondent over the properties dispute in Karachi for Karachi Circular Railways project which is why Japan decided to quit this project of paramount importance.
Dar said he himself asked the attorney general to omit the name of JICA from the petition to allay their concerns.Muhammad Saleh Zaafir adds: The meeting, chaired by the prime minister, lasted for about five hours.
Well placed sources privy to the meeting proceedings told The News that two federal ministers, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi put across their respective ministries case vehemently. Water and Power Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif played cool during the discussions.
The two main ministries chief kept on passing the buck to each other and it became difficult for the prime minister to fix the responsibility for the emergence of ugly situation.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who especially flew to Islamabad, also attended the meeting. Secretary to PM Javaid Aslam, Additional Secretary to PM Fawad Hasan Fawad, Federal Secretary for Water and Power Muhammad Younis Dhaga, acting Secretary Petroleum Arshad Mirza also attended the meeting.