ISLAMABAD: Acting brazenly, the Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) marketing companies on Tuesday increased the gas price by Rs5 per kg in the face of rising local production.
The commodity has witnessed second hike in just seven days without any notification, putting extra burden on masses and posing a challenge to the regulator to purge unethical business practices from the LPG market, said the LPG distributors association's chairman Irfan Khokhar.
Describing the rising trend in LPG price an effort to defame the democratic set-up, he called upon the government to take notice of frequent raises to foil such bid and protect masses who had expressed their trust in it.
He alleged the marketing companies were extorting Rs40 million a day through unjustified raises, as none of entity in LPG supply chain including the producing companies had raised the commodity's price, necessitating strict action against unscrupulous business forces in the LPG market, he added.
He described the price increase as illegal and said that the prices were jacked up without any notification of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA).
He dispelled the impression that there was a shortage of LPG, adding that there was adequate stock available to fulfil requirements.
Khokhar said LPG production would be augmented with new supply of 450 metric tonne from Makori Oil field and the gas stock's volume would expand further when production from Sanjouri besides other fields would commence, soon.
"The LPG is mainly used as burning fuel by the poor people of the remote areas and rising trend in its price would put extra burden on them," he observed.
He said the price of domestic cylinders went up by Rs60 and commercial cylinder by Rs240.
He said that the OGRA should play its role by taking action against the unethical forces in the LPG sector, that were extracting money through unjustified raises.
In major cities including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Karachi, one kilogram of the commodity will be sold at Rs125 with domestic cylinder at Rs1450 and it will be priced at Rs145 in hilly areas while Rs1690 will be charged for domestic cylinder.
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