Government plan to replace CNG with LPG upsets traders

‘Decision will cause distress and loss to millions across the country’.

KARACHI: The government plans to replace Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) with Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the near future.

According to the CNG Dealers Association of Pakistan and CNG Station Owners Association of Pakistan, this step will render thousands jobless and worsen the law and order situation. Representatives from both associations, Abdul Sami Khan and Malik Khuda Baksh, while speaking at a press conference on Monday at the Karachi Press Club, said that the increase in CNG prices had put owners and dealers on edge. “The CNG is a local product and if we stop supplying it to over four million users then it will create a law and order situation as well,” Khan said. Buksh said that the petroleum ministry was promoting LPG and that such measures would result in the closure of businesses and compel people to come on to the streets in protest. CNG prices were currently 45% less than the price of petrol, but by replacing it with LPG, people would lose the economic benefit of using this fuel. They commented that Rs300 billion had been partially raised through bank loans and invested in CNG stations. “If the CNG industry is partly or completely closed down, the loss to the investors will be phenomenal and will cause banks to default,” they said. CNG industries in America and India were promoted and handsomely subsidised. Khan said that according to a survey, pollution had gone down by 61% in Karachi and Lahore and that by replacing this product, the environment would be harmed.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2012.