The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has increased the gas tariff by 36 percent in the current financial year 2016-17.
According to local news paper ‘ The News Pakistan’ OGRA proposed to increase the gas price for the Sui Northern Gas Private Limited (SNGPL) by Rs57.89 per MMBTU and decreased the gas price for Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) by Rs60.12 per MMBTU.
The increase in gas price will be applicable in the ongoing fiscal year. As per the formula of the federal government, the increase in gas tariff determined for the Sui Northern will be applicable across the country.
OGRA has sent the summary to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources seeking the advice of the federal government by November 15 on deciding the increase in gas tariff particularly for domestic consumers and generally for other categories of consumers.
The OGRA under the PM directive approved the 5,500-kilometre new gas schemes for parliamentarians.
The new gas schemes require Rs9 billion to get completed and the financial burden of Rs9 billion has been passed on to the end consumers.
The Ogra has finalised the operating income at Rs201 billion for the Sui Northern and operating expenses at Rs161 billion in the financial year 2016-17 for Sui Southern.
The regulator has, in nutshell, determined the operating profit for Sui Northern in the current fiscal at Rs39.5 billion. In the determination, the Ogra has fixed the revenue for Sui Northern at Rs225 billion.
The average prescribed gas price for Sui Northern has been jacked up from Rs422.74 per MMBTU to Rs480.83 and for Sui Southern, the price has tumbled to Rs354.24 per MMBTU from Rs419.36 per MMBTU.
Under the new formula of the federal government, the increase in the gas price fixed for the Sui Northern will be applicable for the end consumers across the country, meaning by that the end, consumers of Sui Southern will also be exposed to an increase in the gas price.
The additional amount that Sui Southern will collect from its consumers will be deposited with the federal government under the head of Gas Development Surcharge.
The documents also reveal that the regulator has rejected a request of Sui Northern seeking collection of 10 percent from consumers in the head of unaccounted for gas (UFG).
However, Ogra not only maintained the UFG at 4.5 percent but also extended the penalty of Rs7 billion to the Sui Northern for not controlling the UFG. Likewise, the Sui Southern has requested for UFG at 7 percent but Ogra has rejected it maintaining the UFG at 4.5 percent. Rather the regulator has penalised the Sui Southern with a staggering amount of Rs13.8 billion. (PhotoNews / The News)
