Company challenges ban on installing CNG kits in locally assembled vehicles

Petitioner says SRO designed to encourage market for LNG.

KARACHI: A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Tuesday ordered issuance of notices to commerce and petroleum ministries as well as Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority in a petition filed by a leading importer of CNG kits in Pakistan.

The petitioner company, Landi Renzo, challenged a statutory regulatory order (SRO) issued in February 2012 which prohibits the installation of CNG kits and cylinders in locally manufactured or assembled vehicles.

It maintained that the SRO issued by the Ministry of Commerce, following a decision by the Economic Co-ordination Committee, was discriminatory as the imported vehicles are exempted from this new directive.

“Millions of vehicles are plying on CNG and there are more than 3,600 CNG pumps in the country,” petitioner informed the court, adding that millions of people are directly or indirectly employed in the CNG sector and if the SRO was enforced, then the petrol import bill would double.

The petitioner argued that the CNG sector was targeted and discouraged from encouraging the market for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). While the CNG is locally produced, the LNG would be imported with a monopoly in the hands of a few individuals, the petitioner said, praying the court to direct the respondents to end the discriminatory policy.

The bench, after hearing initial arguments, put the respondents on notice for an unspecified date and directed the respondents to file comments in the petition.

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