The number of industrial units closed due to suspension of supply of gas by Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited in NWFP during last four-days risen to 240 on Friday, inflicting heavy losses on both business community and the exchequer.
The SNGPL has suspended the supply to the units at Hayatabad Industrial Estate, Hayatabad and Small Industrial Estate, Kohat Road, on Wednesday bringing industrial activities in the provincial capital to a standstill. The Industrialists Association Peshawar (IAP) has expressed anger over the act of the company and had termed it a step-motherly treatment with the industries of the impoverished economy of the province.
The authorities of the SNGPL on the other hand had attributed the supply suspension to a technical fault in Zamzama gas field in Sindh. The issue of gas suspension was also raised in a meeting of the NWFP Working Group on Economic and Investment held at Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) with Provincial Minister for Finance, Azam Khan in the chair.
The group having representation from both public and private sector discussed the matter and decided that the interim government of the province will approach the federal government for restoration of gas supply.
The newly-appointed SNGPL General Manager Mohammad Iqbal, who was attending his maiden meeting informed that 50 work on the technical fault at Zamzama Gas Field has been completed and the remaining would be completed within three or four days. However, the caretaker minister for finance was determined of raising the matte with federal government.
The SNGPL has also cut off supply to the captive power plants of the textile units in the province. The issue of the suspending gas supply to the industrial units of NWFP was not new as for the past many years SNGPL has to cut off the supply during cold.
Meanwhile, the SNGPL has started work on a pipeline from Gurguri and Shakar Darra to Peshawar for the resolving the gas loadshedding problem in the province. "We had started work on a 140-km long pipeline project to provide gas to the city from alternative source of Makori gas field," SNGP GM told the meeting. The deadline for the completion of the project was December 2007, but due to the resistance of the locals it would now be completed by the end of the current year. The project is likely to cost Rs 2.7 billion, he added.
The suspension of gas supply to the units are not only depriving the national exchequer of the huge revenue of more than Rs 50 million per day but also threatening the livelihood of more than 36000 labourers working in these units. According to estimates, the country has lost Rs 200 million in shape of sales, income and turnover taxes and revenues of the provincial government.
Despite the intervention of the provincial government and pressure exerted by industrialists the authorities of SNGPL are delaying restoration of the gas supply to the industrial units of the province. This scribe made several attempts to seek comments from the GM, but he was not available in his office.
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