Fuel shortage: Musadik warns hoarders of ‘dire consequences’

Government would ensure that state’s writ established at every cost, says minister

ISLAMABAD:

Minister of State for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik on Wednesday warned the elements involved in hoarding of petroleum products and creating artificial fuel shortage of "dire consequences."

The remarks came after reports of oil shortage again gripped the country mainly because of hoarding of stocks and the failure of several companies to import the commodity.

Last month, the government had raised the price of petrol and diesel by Rs35 per litre each, a couple of days before the scheduled date of revising oil prices, apparently bowing to hoarders rather than taking action against them.

Some petrol pumps have now stopped the supply to customers as they plan to store the commodity and sell it after a likely increase in the price in the coming days.

However, some companies that failed to import the petroleum products due to issues in the opening of Letter of Credit (LCs) were also unable to supply the fuel to their retail outlets, which led to the shortage of products.

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“Sufficient useable stocks of petroleum products are available in the country to meet needs of petrol [363,085 metric tonnes] for 20 days and diesel [515,687 metric tonnes] for 29 days. These are other than cargoes arriving and waiting in the sea for berthing,” Musadik said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

The minister was of the view that a few people were involved in creating an artificial shortage by dumping petrol and diesel with the hope to sell them in future at an exorbitant rate.

He said that the government would ensure the state’s writ is established at every cost and hinted licenses of the people (oil marketing companies), who would be found involved in such illegal activities would be revoked. “I request to those hoarding petroleum products to shun this practice and do not challenge the writ of the state.”

Musadik said that prices of petroleum products were revised by the government as per the scheduled time, international market and rupee-dollar parity.

Answering a question, the minister said that during the ongoing winter season, the incumbent government, under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, ensured better gas management which resulted in better supply to consumers, especially domestic sector as compared to the last 10 years.

Replying to another question, he said that an agreement with Russia would hopefully be finalised following which low-cost crude oil will start arriving in Pakistan.

Experts say there seemed no governance as the petroleum division had failed to handle the oil dealers’ mafia that had been looting the consumers by creating an artificial shortage of petrol and diesel.

They said that the explosive department working under the administrative control of the petroleum division had powers to cancel the licence of petroleum dealers, adding that it never used the authority to take action against the oil dealers’ mafia.

Even, oil marketing companies could take action against the petroleum dealers by suspending supplies of fuel but they had also been reluctant to take action, the experts said.