The real facts

We have learnt over the past few months, through Geo TV programmes, about the losses inflicted on the nation through the delayed buying of LNG from the international market. In the last two years, there has been a loss of Rs122 billion. This winter alone, a loss of Rs35 billion was inflicted through the poor policies by the government and a further Rs50 billion were lost on the manufacture of electricity through expensive furnace oil rather than LNG, which was not bought on time. What is especially ironic about this is that the prime minister and his team continue to blame the previous PML-N government for signing long-term contracts. Yet at the same time, the government has been buying LNG at prices far higher than the 13 percent at which the tender was signed by the PML-N government. SAPM Nadeem Babar continues to insist that there is no difference in the time when LNG is bought, and that delays in putting out tenders will do no damage. It has been proven again and again that this is incorrect. For January and February, the government has been forced to buy LNG at above 17 percent and above 16 percent, while discovering that for some periods of that time, no obtainable LNG was available at all at rates that it could afford. This is a massive loss to the nation.

To make matters worse, a government which has come to power on the slogan of honesty, integrity and transparency has been misrepresenting the situation. While Nadeem Babar initially showed prices in rupees and said the PML-N had bought LNG at 11 percent, the figures for the current government showed it had purchased it at 20 percent. Then they began showing the figures in dollars, making it more confusing for people to understand what is going on. In the meanwhile, it is of course the national exchequer which suffered – with no viable deals made and a constant crisis remaining in place over LNG purchase. This forced dependence on far more expensive furnace oil, creating problems for both the industrial and domestic sectors which have struggled with gas supply throughout the year.

We can accept that mistakes are made by an inexperienced government. But surely by now, those in charge of the energy ministry should have looked at the documents in more depth, studied what other countries are doing, and made attempts to understand why bids had to be turned down at specific points, and why this was so out of reach for our country. From these mistakes, amendments can be made, so that the same errors are not repeated in the future. Even more essential is the need for members of government to ensure that the full facts are put for both the prime minister and the nation that the entire government serves.