Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians on Tuesday claimed that National Accountability Bureau had confirmed that massive bungling was committed in the petroleum pricing formula, resulting in an unprecedented profit margin for petroleum companies.
NAB Sindh report claimed that it was a strong case of mega corruption and had been lying on the table of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz since October 18, 2005, PPPP Finance Secretary, Senator Babar Awan said at a news conference here at the party's media office.
"Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is not looking into the report deliberately due to the fear of his own arrest in the scandal, he said, quoting from the report. He was flanked by Nazir Dhoki and Wasif Mehmood. He castigated the ever-rising prices of petroleum products at the cost of the poor, demanding filing of reference under section 16 of NAB Ordinance against the Prime Minister, two ministers, three federal secretaries, and their advisors for being involved in the scam.
He said that the government, ever since it took over the reins of the country, has committed the biggest ever fraud in the petroleum sector. It links the prices of petroleum products with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price, which is 70 dollars per barrel. However, Pakistan always bought oil from the Gulf and Middle Eastern countries, mainly from Kuwait Petroleum whose prices are 10-20 dollars per barrel less than WTI prices.
Awan gave details of how the government manipulated on buying petroleum products and benefiting the oil companies. He said the government had imposed uncalled for 6 percent regulatory duty on the petroleum products in June 2002, which had raised the prices further. He then gave figures of four refinery companies how they earned tremendous profit in the last six years. Naming them, he said National Refinery Limited (NRL), Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL), Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) and Pak Arab Refinery (Parco) collected huge profits in all these years.
The profitability in annual percentage started from 2000-01 and ended in 2006. NRL with Rs 23 million and ended up with Rs 3745 million. The PRL 76 million and ended at Rs 2107. ARL 29 million and ended 1426 million at and Parco started with Rs 1279 million and ended 9627 million in 2006.
He said likewise the government earned a lot on High Speed Diesel with 0.5 percent of sulphur. This is a premium product and has no production in Pakistan. He said the oil companies started premium at the rate of 0.8 dollar per barrel and now they are charging $1.3 per barrel. In this way they have earned the profit of Rs 21.32 billion from June 2003 to October 2005. They have also earned profit through marketing by raising 700 percent freight charges. Likewise, they imposed petroleum development levy (PDL) in June 2001. Not a single penny was spent on the configuration and development of the petroleum products. All the profit is going into the pockets of the companies and not to the government.
He said then the government resorted to the furnace oil fraud. He quoted from the Pakistan Energy Year Book, which states that the PSO, Shell and Caltex earned 234, 194 and 251 percent profits respectively. He pointed out that even the attorney general of Pakistan said in the Supreme Court that the prices of oil products should be lowered. But regretted the government was adamant on raising the prices of petroleum products making people poorer. The senator also made a comparison that if the price of one litre of diesel increases by one rupee only it means that the government would earn 9.39081 billion in a year.
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