LAHORE - The government is wasting 500mmcfd of gas on CNG stations just to save Rs50 billion while it can secure up to Rs300 billion by diverting the gas supply to the industry and Independent Power Producers for affordable electricity, food security and more employment opportunities in the country.
This was stated by the representatives of textile mills, fertiliser industry and Independent Power Producers (IPPs), during a press conference. They joined hands against CNG stations to form Pakistan Industrial Forum in an effort to ‘save the industry from total disaster’ in the wake of energy crisis. However, the LCCI has supported the CNG sector’s point of view, saying the decision to impose taxes on CNG, by the government on the demand of industry to minimize the gap of gas and oil rates, will ruin investment of Rs500 billion.
The LCCI urged the government to immediately initiate talks with CNG Association and solve their issues as protests and strikes had already pushed the country to the wall and its economy is facing multiple internal and external challenges.
The CNG Association termed it a well-cooked conspiracy against the sole profitable industry of the country. The office-bearers while talking to the LCCI president said that people will not buy Rs100 per kilogram CNG as they were already pressed by high gas and power prices in the country. They added that the CNG association will condemn any government decision which might resort to bring increase in CNG prices and would resist it tooth and nail. They said that the association rejects any increase in the CESS tax on CNG in the budget therefore all CNG stations of Pakistan will remain closed for indefinite period.
On the other hand, Gohar Ejaz, the Aptma representative to the Forum, addressing the media said that the Forum would work in the larger interest of the industry in Pakistan by pursuing the government as well as general public on efficient use of energy. Fertiliser industry was represented by Fawad Mukhtar and the IPPs sector by Shahid Abdullah. They said that textile industry has faced gas shortage for 190 days during last one year, followed by fertiliser industry for 180 days and the IPPs for 176 days, as the major chunk the limited gas goes to the CNG, curtailing the GDP growth by about 3 percent. They said Pakistan Industrial Forum has initiated a public awareness campaign on efficient use of gas, a precious source of energy to the industrial growth of Pakistan.
They said the value of loss for the local textile industries is now estimated to be over a billion dollars per month. This all has been due to flawed gas allocation policy initiated by the Government of Pakistan, which allocated minimum gas supply to the textile sector, as compared with the CNG sectors consuming a large portion of the total gas supply. At present, the demand of gas from CNG sector is 500 mmcfd while the commercial sector gets 80mmcfd of gas, but industry suffers most due to this ill distribution of gas amongst different sectors of economy.
The current gas supply priority list shows that CNG sector stands second in the list, after domestic consumers. In contrast, the textile sector which is supposed to be one of the largest cotton-producing countries of the world has been put lower in the gas supply priority list, they said.
Gohar Ejaz said that for instance out of 3000 CNG stations, even if 1/3rd are shutdown, total labour force that may become unemployed would be around 15,000 but 100 mmcfd could run a large number of big textile units that employ up to 10 million workforce directly or indirectly.
He said that phenomenal ill-planned growth in CNG sector has resulted in nothing but total collapse of the rest of industrial and manufacturing sectors of the country, particularly textile industry, which tops the list of those that have incurred most damages. There has been insufficient gas supply to local textile industries, causing irrecoverable damages to this sector, which is now on the verge of collapse. It is to be noted that all the three sectors were at loggerheads last year, busy in fighting in getting the available gas for their respective units.