ISLAMABAD: All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) has found another ally; All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association has extended its support and decided to join the strike from Monday.
“We support the demand of the CNG industry,” Chairman Mir Muhammad Yusuf Shahwani told The Express Tribune adding that the increase in tax will have a negative impact on the masses.
The current tax on CNG is about Rs141 per million British thermal units (mmbtu), or about Rs5 per kilogramme (kg) of CNG bought by the average consumer. The 2013 federal budget proposes more than doubling this amount to Rs300 per mmbtu. The new tax will raise retail prices of CNG by at least 6.4%, to about Rs94.35 per kg.
“We will stop oil supply to all buyers including airports and power generation companies from Monday,” he said.
“There will be no supply of petrol, diesel, furnace oil and jet fuel from Monday,” said All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association Punjab President Nadeem Abbas.
After joining hands with APCNGA a day earlier, Petrol Pumps Dealers Association (PPDA) has also slipped in a demand of revising their petrol margin.
In a joint press conference, PPDA information Secretary Khwaja Atif demanded the government to increase their margin from 0.8% to 4% on every litre of petrol. “If the government fails to agree to our demands by Monday, we will shut down all stations in Punjab,” threatened Atif.
The numbers game
Gas consumption by independent power producers and the industrial sector is consuming more than half of the country total consumption while the CNG sector is consuming only nine per cent, according to a list positive numbers compiled by APCNGA and sent exclusively to The Express Tribune.
The list is a response to a similar one published by industrialists – textile industry, independent power producers, fertiliser sector – in newspapers portraying the negative impact of the industry to the economy.
The fertiliser sector is paying the lowest tariff while CNG sector is paying the highest tariff, data shows.
Gas consumption of 260 MMCFD – the amount consumed by the CNG industry – if diverted for power generation will generate only 600 megawatts whereas total shortfall is 7,500 megawatts
The CNG industry’s presence saves $ 9.2 million per day or $ 3.3 billion per annum of foreign exchange through lesser import of petrol. An amount of Rs45 billion is paid to the government in the forms of taxes annually.
Meanwhile, Paracha in response to the gas consumption figure released by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) in a statement on Friday said that APCNGA will initiate legal proceedings the gas utility once the strike is over.
SNGPL claimed that CNG demand during the strike has only dropped by 35% despite all these pumps being shut.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2012.
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If any, the consumers are the one who should protest against the gas tax. Why are the retailers on strike. How increase in tax is going to affect their sales. Consumer pays the tax, retailer collects it. Chaos rules PAK.