Chairman, Al-Pakistan CNG Association, Sindh Zone, Junaid Esmail Makda has urged the government to review its oil and gas exploration policy which links locally produced oil and gas prices with international prices.
Taking to Business Recorder, he said that due to linking of locally produced gas prices with international prices it has started hitting the local industry and cost of doing business is increasing at a very fast rate. He said on going increase in the gas prices has narrowed down the gap between the prices of motor gasoline and CNG, which defeats the very purpose of providing cheaper fuel for the transport sector.
He noted that current account deficit has skyrocketed during the last few months owing to ever increasing import bill of petroleum products. He said that deteriorating balance of payment situation can only be tackled by giving incentive to local companies to explore oil and gas and disallowing increase in locally produced oil and gas with the increase of oil and gas prices internationally. Replying to a question, he said that the association has allowed CNG prices increase from Rs 31 to Rs 32.75 per kg or by Rs 1.75 due to increase in gas prices by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority. (Ogra).
He said that under the notification issued by Ogra gas tariff for CNG station increased from Rs 240.91 per MMBTU to Rs 264.87 per MMBTU. He said that increased CNG prices includes 81 paisa gas price, 15 percent sales tax and budgetary impact including increase in minimum salaries, rent, commission etc. However, total increase in CNG price comes to only 5.34 percent.
Comments
Comments are closed.