ISLAMABAD: Sindh government has once again rejected Weightage Average Cost of Gas (WACOG) of indigenous gas and RLNG.
This stance has been conveyed by Sindh Minister for Energy Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh in a letter to Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar.
Shaikh said that his letter is a continuation of the meeting held in the Chief Minister House, Karachi which was attended by, among others, Asad Umar, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Khalid Mansoor, SAPM on CPEC Affairs, Tabish Gauhar, SAPM on Power and Petroleum, and Hammad Azhar participated via Zoom link on August 08, 2021.
According to Imtiaz Shaikh, Chief Minister Sindh in the meeting clearly explained the position of the Government of Sindh on Weighted Average Cost of Gas or any attempt to rework the present arrangement. He reiterated that Government of Sindh does not support and rejects any attempt to alter the present arrangement of WACOG for natural gas produced in the country.
"We believe that any attempt to add RLNG in the present WACOG prices with any ring-fenced options with Tier-I consumers of indigenous natural gas would phenomenally elevate the gas prices upward which is detrimental to and adversely impact domestic, commercial, industrial and CNG sector consumers in Sindh," he said.
Sindh Minister maintained that the Federal Government should refrain from adding RLNG price with present WACOG pricing mechanism of indigenous natural gas. As per existing practice, RLNG consumers (i-e Tier-II) shall continue to be ring fenced and kept separate from the regular consumers (i-e Tier-1) utilizing indigenous gas under WACOG. The government of Sindh has also emphasised the constitutional rights of the people of Sindh for priority over utilization of natural gas from the wellheads located in the province, in pursuance of Article 158 of the Constitution of Pakistan, to be safeguarded in letter and spirit.
The Provincial Minister further contended that natural gas allocation quota of Sindh in the SSGCL system shall, therefore, be increased so that people of the province can reap the economic benefits of indigenous natural gas. Moreover, the natural gas consumers in Sindh shall also be provided with the proportional cost subsidy for the quantity of gas produced in the province, over which Sindh has the first right of utilization, but supplied to other parts and also utilized in power generation which is added in the national grid and production of fertilizer whose benefits are enjoyed by entire country. Therefore, people of Sindh may adequately be compensated for the portion of the gas which is supplied to other parts or utilized for the purposes whose benefits are spread over entire country either by providing subsidy in natural gas or power tariffs or subsidy in fertilizer prices.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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