Gas issues: Transport workers, CNG dealers block highway

Protesters accuse govt of creating artificial shortage.

MULTAN:

Hundreds of transport workers, CNG dealers and employees on Monday protested against partial CNG closure and increase in gas tariff.

The protesters gathered at Bahawalpur Chowk and blocked the road for hours obstructing traffic heading to Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Vehari, Mailsi, Burewala, Jhang, Faisalabad Kabirwala, Shorkot, Sargodha, Sahiwal and Sialkot. The protesters blocked the road by parking their vehicles on the roads and burning tyres.

Shahid Rao, the All Pakistan CNG Dealers Association (Multan Chapter) President, said that the decision to shut down CNG stations for a month was unjust. “They have also increased the tariff on gas,” he added.

Rao accused Dr Asim Hussain, the federal minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, of undermining CNG businesses to benefit petroleum dealers. He said that the conspiracy was hatched at the highest level to destroy the CNG industry by depriving the industry of the “only raw material” it had and secondly also bringing CNG prices at par with petroleum products. “The CNG sector consumes just seven per cent of the gas produced in the country. Still it is frequently deprived of gas using the excuse of a countrywide shortage that is artificial,” he said.

Rao said that CNG was an inexpensive and environment-friendly fuel. He said the government leaders made claims of providing relief to the people, yet several steps had been taken recently to cripple the CNG sector, he added.

He said he feared that if the government went ahead with the plan to increase CNG prices, Pakistan will have the world’s highest CNG prices as well as the largest number of vehicles operating on gas.

Rana Shiraz Bashir, the APCNGA spokesman for southern Punjab, denounced the move to impose a gas infrastructure development levy on CNG businesses. He said the government wanted to revise Rs11.5 billion by imposing the new tax on an industry which was already facing serious hardship due to frequent shutdowns. “The CNG industry has been contributing billions of tax rupees to the national exchequer, but its survival is still at stake,” he regretted.

Bashir alleged that an artificial shortage had been created to import LNG at a high price. “This is a scam. It will unfold the way the rental power plants scam did,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2012.