Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) will soon become white elephant if persisting trend of non-payment of dues continue by big consumers like KESC, Wapda and other government organisations, Dr Faizullah Abbasi, Managing Director SSGC informed industrialists.
Speaking at a meeting of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) on Tuesday, he said that KESC owes around Rs 22 billion and Wapda owes Rs 6 billion of SSGC. However, he assured industrialists that SSGC has no plan to chop off KESC gas supply on the issue of non-payment of outstanding dues.
Disconnection of gas supply will create power-generating problem, which ultimately have serious impact on industrial production and hit hard domestic consumers. Abbasi said that KESC has only paid August bill in September and there is no clearance of arrears whereas it refused to pay the late-payment surcharge. The Managing Director stated that SSGC facing serious financial pinch due to non-payment of gas supply dues by KESC and Wapda. He sought the help of industrialists and trade organisations to pursue KESC and Wapda to clear outstanding dues.
He informed industrialists that gas supply will be curtailed due to repair and maintenance of one of the gas field during October 26 to November 4, 2010. All the big consumers of gas has already been informed through a letter and devised KESC and Wapda to arrange alternative fuel to run power generators during this period, he said.
Referring to recent curtailment of gas supply to KESC, he clarified that SSGC applied no cut in gas supply due to non-payment of bills. It is propaganda of KESC against SSGC, he alleged. However, he admitted that gas supply to KESC was reduced due to low supply of gas from gas field as well as ongoing work of repair and maintenance of gas supply system.
The managing director further said that there is no agreement with KESC to supply gas. He clarified that SSGC has no official agreement of gas supply to KESC and gas is being supplied to the KESC only due to a decision by Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet.
Dr Faizullah Abbasi said that there is lot of pressure from officials of SSGC to cut gas supply of KESC and restore the same after recovery of dues. "I am resisting this pressure in best interest of general pubic as we do not want to annoy them on the fault of KESC. Referring to industrial sector, he said that almost 99.9 percent industrialists are paying dues on time.
Former President FPCCI and leader of business community, S M Munir emphasised the need of early privatisation of steel mill, PIA, railway which incurring a loss of Rs 300 billion. He also proposed that private sector representatives be included in board of directors of PIA, Railway and Steel Mill.
Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan said that there is only one solution of SSGC issue and that is they must hold a joint meeting with KESC, KWSB and representative of industries to sort-out a solution of non-payment of bills and outstanding dues. Chairman KATI, Syed Johar Ali Qandhari said around 5 to 6 government organisations have already become white elephant and eating up Rs 300 billion pubic money annually which includes railway, PIA, TCP, Passco. He noted that around 300 textile units have ceased their product due to gas load shedding in the country.
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