SC verdict: ‘OGRA puts gas price burden on consumers’

CNG manufacturers say they will file a petition in Supreme Court.

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) CNG Association said that it intends to take the Oil and Gas Producing Authority (Ogra) to court over its decision against decreasing taxes at gas stations.

Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Friday, members of the association said that they were not satisfied over the Supreme Court’s (SC) verdict to reduce gas prices, but said that Ogra had not yet introduced any measures to reduce the price. Chairman of the CNG Association for K-P, Fazli Muqeem Khan, said that CNG stations across the province have begun implementing the SC’s orders. However, Ogra had not yet issued any notifications for the reduction of prices.

He also said that Ogra had withheld the manufacturing costs and refused to reduce taxes, putting the CNG industry in great distress. Khan said that the Ministry of Petroleum was trying to put the entire burden of the cost on CNG consumers by not issuing this notification.

“The compression of CNG gas is a long process involving a lot of heavy machinery. Repairs of machines also have a high cost,” he said. The manufacturing cost was initially borne by Ogra, but now the cost is being put on consumers directly.

Therefore, consumers, CNG station owners and others involved in the sale of the gas are now being charged for this cost, he added.

The K-P CNG Association said they will file a petition in the SC against this move.