Gas load-shedding enrages business community

A week’s notice given to the federal government to withdraw the increase in rates

PESHAWAR: Businessmen in the city warned the federal government on Tuesday of protests if gas load-shedding did not stop in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

“We have forcibly been subjected to heavy gas load-shedding,” said K-P Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairperson Zulfiqar Ali Khan during a press conference at KPCCI on Tuesday. “We will go stepwise; we will give some time to the government, but the ultimate step will be to contact the higher judiciary.”

Traders present at the conference said they have the right to file a case with the superior judiciary against gas load-shedding and the ban on providing new gas connections to industries in the province. They gave a week’s time to the government to fix the issue.

Traders’ woes

One of the traders said, “A permanent ban on new connections for households or factories has been enforced in K-P which is against the laws of the land as there is surplus production of the resource in the province.”

The federal government had earlier said Punjab and K-P are 200 million cubic feet short on gas due to which there was load-shedding and low pressure in the supply. It added that this will continue till January 2016.

The reason for the shortage, as cited by the federal government, was that 0.3 million new household connections were issued in Punjab and K-P. Therefore, the federal government decided to increase the price of gas in both the provinces, said the traders.

However, they rejected the new increase in the prices of gas by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA). The prices will be increased by Rs107 per million British thermal units.

This would indicate that gas prices in K-P and Punjab would be increased by 38% starting January 1, 2016. The traders said there is enough gas in the province therefore such an increase
is unjustifiable.

‘Ultimatum’

While talking about the establishment of new industrial zones in the province and incentives to lure investors, KPCCI chairman said they have not been taken into confidence over policymaking by any government.

“The traders were not taken into confidence even if the matter is related to them.”

He gave the government a week’s time to end gas load-shedding. “Otherwise, the issue will be taken to the court.” He added the ban on new gas connections, which also extends to factories, is a serious matter as the industries were in a dilapidated state and needed
more attention.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2015.