Pakistan, India, Afghanistan agree to link transit tariff with gas price

Pakistan, India and Afghanistan have agreed to link transit tariff with gas price that has yet to be agreed under Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources told Business Recorder here on Friday that during a meeting of technical working group of the four nation gas pipeline project held in Kabul from May 17-18, member countries agreed that the transit tariff would be linked with the gas price.
They said that during the meeting the delegates discussed three options including fixation of a lump-sum amount as transit fee, linking the transit tariff with the length of the gas pipeline and linking it with gas price. They said that the TAPI countries supported the third option: to link the transit tariff with gas price under the project.
When contacted Zafar Iqbal Qadir spokesman for Ministry of Petroleum, maintained that in the Kabul meeting the representatives of the four countries agreed ''to some extent'' to link transit fee with gas price, but added that the governments of the countries would have to take a final decision in this regard.
Qadir further added that the Kabul meeting was the first meeting of the technical working group on the issue of transit fee; India reportedly agreed to accept "connective price bargain" formula for fixation of transit fee informally. He added that the four countries would hold the next meeting on May 30 to June 4 in Manila, Philippines where other issues would also be discussed.