Pakora vendor gets Rs1 million gas bill

SIALKOT: Muhammad Muneer, the owner of a small pakora shop in the Shah Syedan neighbourhood of Sialkot, has just received his monthly gas bill from Sui Northern Gas Pipelines: Rs1,117,000. The utility company has threatened him with a disconnection of his gas line if he fails to pay. Muneer, a father of five, said that he is at a loss to understand how the gas company could bill him over a million rupees. While SNGP officials in Sialkot admit that the bill was the result of a computer error, they have thus far refused to issued a corrected bill, threatening Muneer’s pakora business.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2011.