Ministry powerless: OGRA to plan on gas outages

"According to the constitution, no government authority could force a business to run at a loss", says Ghayas Paracha.

LAHORE:

The CNG Association has said that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) will now plan how to manage gas pressure and take decisions on gas and CNG outages as the court has barred the Ministry of Petroleum and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) from taking decisions on loadshedding.

Briefing members of the Lahore Economic Journalists Association on Monday, CNG Association’s former central chairman Ghayas Paracha said according to the constitution, no government authority could force a business to run at a loss. He claimed the government did not reduce its taxes after price cuts, curtailing the margin of filling stations to zero and collecting taxes of over Rs35.89 on sale of every kg of CNG.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2012.