Despite Prime Minister’s deferment, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has issued policy guidelines to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) for change in the gas pricing mechanism that is estimated to increase consumer tariff significantly.
Informed sources said that new guidelines issued to Ogra would effectively double the amount of system losses to be charged from consumers and dilute the ongoing investigations into Rs82 billion Ogra scandal case ordered by the Supreme Court.
The ECC had decided to issue new policy guidelines to Ogra in a meeting on Nov 20. On the very next day, while presiding over a meeting of the cabinet committee on energy, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had rejected the gas tariff increase and deferred a final decision pending a comprehensive briefing on system losses, international benchmarks, efficiency of gas companies and impact on consumers to justify revision in gas tariff.
Sources said that the SNGPL has yet to refund about Rs13bn ordered by the Lahore High Court on account of higher unaccounted for gas (UFG) charged to consumers about four years ago.
