Court decision: OGRA stopped from issuing new CNG licences

Authority’s counsel defends client, claiming licence applicants were held back by red tape.

ISLAMABAD:

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday stopped the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) from issuing new licences for setting up CNG stations as 200 applications had been pending with the authority.

Headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the bench noted that Ogra did not comply with the one-day relaxation on the moratorium for the issuance of new CNG licences on March 12, 2013 and that the authority should not issue any licence until the final disposal of the case pending before the apex court.

The bench, also comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, expressed its surprise over Ogra’s decision to issue provisional or marketing licences to different applicants who had applied for the new licences before the ban was put in place in February 2008. But there is no mention of such licences in the CNG Production and Marketing Rules 1992.

Representing Ogra, advocate Iftikhar Gillani said such licences were issued only after the applicants had applied much before the imposition of the ban in 2008 but could not obtain the necessary no objection certificates (NOCs) from the relevant departments in time.

The bench, however, also observed that there was no mention of such licences in the rules and such licences should not have been issued. It noted that in some cases, Ogra had also approved site-change requests, allowing relocations.

The bench observed that a set criteria was needed to issue further licences as provisional licences were not allowed under the rules and there had been a ban on new licences. It went on to ask who in Ogra was competent to entertain new applications for the licences as the natural gas supply for CNG sector had been on the decline.

Separately, the secretary of petroleum informed the court that no letter of credit was opened for import of CNG kits and cylinders after the ban was imposed on 2011.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2013.