APTMA seeks removal of arrears

LAHORE: All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Syed Ali Ahsan on Monday urged the government to direct Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) to remove unjustified arrears from the gas bills and sort issues regarding subsidy and late payment surcharge once and for all.

He was addressing a press conference at the APTMA Punjab office, along with APTMA Chairman Punjab Adil Bashir and other office bearers and members of the association.

SNGPL has issued gas bills at full RLNG tariff for the month of June, 2019 at Rs1,798.32/MMBTU. The industry in other provinces received Rs600/MMBTU gas, while industry in Punjab was entitled to receive gas at $6.5/MMBTU equivalent to Rs1,040/MMBTU. However, SNGPL has started issuing gas bills at full RLNG tariff since March 2019, he added.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had announced a regionally competitive gas tariff for the five zero-rated sectors at $6.5/MMBTU (wef October 16, 2018) and accorded 2nd priority to the five sectors in Gas Allocation and Management Policy.

He said the Lahore High Court had directed SNGPL to issue gas bills on the 10th of every month after receipt of subsidy from the government. SNGPL’s working was contrary to the court order.

“The industry is still awaiting gas pricing mechanism which is to be applied from July 1, 2019 onwards,” he added. To a question about possibility of strike by APTMA, he said the mills were slowly closing down due to high cost of doing business; so there would be no need to go on strike. He said since July 1, five APTMA members have closed down in Punjab and others would also slowly die.