KARACHI:
The All Pakistan Oil Tanker Owners Association (APOTOA) has suspended the supply of furnace oil to private power companies and Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) to protest low transportation fares provided by them.
The association held a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club on Saturday. “We have been forced by the private companies to hold protests and suspend the supply,” APOTOA president, Haji Mohammad Akram Khan Durrani, told The Express Tribune. He alleged that the fares provided by the private power companies and OMC are not according to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and Oil Companies Advisory Committee rates. “The private power companies are giving Rs1,000 to Rs1,400 less per metric ton of oil to the transporter, while they receive full fares from the government.”
According to Durrani, they transport 60,000 metric tons of furnace oil to the private companies, Nishat Power Limited and Nishat Chunian Power Limited, every month from which the companies earn Rs60 million in excess.
In May 2011, Ogra increased the transportation fare for oil tankers by 45 per cent which was applicable on all companies. According to Durrani, it was also said that the fare would increase in accordance with the rise in diesel prices. “The Pakistan State Oil is issuing fares according to the agreement but the private companies have not acted on it.”
The furnace oil supply to private companies will remain suspended until the fare is raised 60 per cent according to the increase in diesel rates, said the association. The oil tanker owners, who supply oil across the country through more than 20,000 vehicles, warned that they will suspend the petrol and diesel supplies across the country if their demands were not met.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2012.
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