Abandoned schemes: Govt to shelve Rs6b gas projects

The prime minister has been requested not to discontinue 54 other schemes worth Rs5.85 billion.

ISLAMABAD:

Hundreds of gas development schemes sanctioned by former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf have been shelved after the authorities found that these were politically motivated and approved despite a ban on such schemes.

The schemes are being abandoned following the Supreme Court’s decision against the use of development funds by former premier Ashraf in the last days of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government.

The SC had directed the government to assess the feasibility of the leftover work and to ascertain whether it was in public interest to continue these projects.



Sources told The Express Tribune that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had been informed that despite imposition of a moratorium on new gas development schemes, the former prime minister’s secretariat had continued conveying approval for gas development schemes, in relaxation to the moratorium.

Now the prime minister has been asked to discontinue 60 schemes worth Rs4.44 billion, according to a summary moved by the petroleum ministry. Projects for these schemes had been approved administratively and procurement work had been initiated earlier, however work had not commenced physically.

The prime minister has also been requested to approve shelving of 170 schemes worth Rs1.6 billion against which funds had been received during 2012-13, but projects for these schemes have not been approved administratively so far, although funds were made available in the assignment account.

However, the prime minister has been requested not to abandon 54 schemes worth Rs5.85 billion against which funds had been received during 2012-13 and work had commenced.

On the other hand, sources in Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Ltd (SNGPL) said the SNGL wanted to continue these schemes that were also within per consumer criteria and had to be entirely financed by SNGPL.

Sources said that the petroleum ministry had supported SNGPL’s point view that abandoning schemes that were in line with the criteria, would not only lead to cost escalation of projects as originally envisaged but may also result in loss of partially laid, incomplete pipelines.

Officials said that all those schemes for which distribution network was required and were within the approved cost criteria set by Economic Coordination Committee were being funded by gas companies from their own resources.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2013.