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KARACHI: The CNG Station Owners Association (CSOA) has opposed the Sui Northern Gas Company plan to enhance gas prices and suspend supply to CNG filling stations from Nov 15 for three months during winter season.
Speaking at a hurriedly-called press conference at the Karachi Press Club here on Saturday, association chairman Malik Khuda Bakhsh said the proposal would hit the CNG sector.
The government, he said, had so far not consulted the association on this issue.
‘We will try to approach the authorities concerned after Eid to convince them to reject such a move,’ he maintained.
He said that the CNG sector consumes only six per cent of the total gas supply in the country and therefore it makes no effect on the overall supply system.
He suggested that the government should adopt some other methods of dealing with gas shortage during winter season because any effort to disturb gas supply to CNG stations would ruin investment in this sector.
Malik pointed out that Rs170 billion has been invested in CNG sector, of which Rs91 billion has been invested by the CNG station owners, Rs61 billion by car owners while investment worth Rs20 billion was in the pipeline.
He pointed out that so far 2.4 million vehicles have been converted to CNG and more than 2500 stations are on ground all over
Malik contested that gas shortage would be only 600 mmcf per day in
He also urged the government to reject the move to increase gas price for CNG sector. He said gas tariff for industrial sector was Rs339 per mmbtu, Rs393 per mmbtu for commercial sector and Rs427 per mmbtu for CNG stations.
‘Gas tariff for CNG was already high and the proposal to raise it to Rs490 per mmbtu would take it the level of petrol,’ he noted.
Replying to a question, Malik said that the association would give a country-wide strike call if the government implements the SNGPL plan. Link...