Filling stations call for fixing minimum 45 pc price gap in CNG, petrol

KARACHI: CNG filling stations have urged the government to issue notification for maintaining at least 45 percent price difference parity between CNG and petrol.

Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club here Wednesday, the leaders of All Pakistan CNG Association, CNG Dealers Association and CNG Owners Association said that CNG price should be 45 percent lower than petrol.

Ghayasuddin Piracha, Junaid Makda, Malik Khuda Bakhsh and Abdus Sami Khan said that the price mechanism for CNG should be notified as per the approved formula of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet.

They said that gas allocation strategy should be developed as per priority of the industry. CNG industry consumes gas as the only source of raw material with no other alternate option available, therefore, priority should be given to CNG industry after domestic sector, they maintained.

Replying to a question, they contended that station owners were selling the CNG at a margin of Rs 7 to 8 only and not Rs 30 as stated by the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources in a recent statement.

They said that there was no need to make any statement regarding CNG price margin as this thing had already been decided by the Ministry in May 2011.

They said that associations had, earlier, decided to go for country-wide strike on August 24, 2011 to press for their demands.

They expressed hope that a meeting with Secretary Petroleum on Friday will result in solution of most of the issues facing CNG industry. "We will decide the future line of action after this meeting," they added.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011