Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has suspended the entire petroleum team except for Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi over the worst-ever petroleum crisis. A statement issued by the Prime Minister Office stated that the Prime Minister has taken serious notice of fuel shortage in various parts of the country. On arriving from Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister called a meeting at the airport and took following decisions to improve the situation on an immediate basis:
He suspended Abid Saeed, Secretary Petroleum, Naeem Malik, Additional Secretary Petroleum, M Azam, Director General Oil and Amjad Janjua, Managing Director Pakistan State Oil (PSO) on the prevailing petrol crisis. The Prime Minister also directed provincial governments to check the sale of petrol in black. He told the authorities to expedite supply and delivery.
Most of the petrol stations remained closed due to non-availability of petrol and people have been running from one filling station to other to get their vehicles and bikes refilled. People aired their anger on social media over non-availability of petrol. An official told Business Recorder that PSO is facing financial crisis due to Rs 175 billion outstanding against power sector. He added that the government has released Rs 17 billion to PSO which are insufficient against the requirements. PSO stated to have been raising the issue of outstanding dues with Ministry of Petroleum and Water and Power but nothing was done to resolve the problem.
Source said the issue of financial problems of distribution companies and their inability to make payment of long outstanding dues of power purchased from the Central Power Purchase Agency (CPPA) was discussed at length during the last Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet meeting. The ECC was informed that main reason behind financial problems of power sector was high distribution losses, low revenue collection and lower applicable tariff. Additionally, increase in thermal generation through furnace oil is also adding to the cost of generation, not being recovered in tariff. As a result, the CPPA has been unable to make payment to Gencos/IPPs to discharge their liabilities of fuel suppliers.
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