The Petroleum Division has agreed to involve LPG importers in determination of price of LPG cylinders after LPG sector rejected the proposed government price of Rs 895 per cylinder. A meeting between office-bearers of LPG Distributors Association and State Minister for Petroleum Minister was held Friday to resolve the issue of price of LPG cylinders ahead of winter. The association hinted that the price of cylinder would increase up to Rs 350 per kg in winter if the government does not take concrete steps in this regard.
A day earlier, Additional Secretary Petroleum Division, Nasir Hassan Jami held a meeting with the LPG Distributors Association, local LPG producers and other stakeholders, wherein the consumer price policy for coming winter was discussed but it could not be finalized.
Recommendation from LPG marketing company to sell domestic cylinder at Rs 895 was made which distributors denied to accept because domestic cylinder is already being sold at Rs 1,200 to Rs 1400 countrywide. The LPG marketing companies recommended their profit of Rs 29000/mt which distributors countered to Rs 24000/mt. LPG distributors & LPG marketing companies together asked for tax reduction on the LPG import. The distributors disagreed to work if provided with less than 15 percent margin.
The LPG distributors threatened to stop distribution from Karachi to Khyber if their demands are not taken into consideration. Rates would be decided in a few days. Chairman LPG Association Irfan Khokhar told Business Recorder that the price of cylinders cannot be finalized until importers of LPG are made part of discussion. He said the government is ignoring the LPG importers and inviting only local producers and those companies which are enjoying LPG quotas.
Keeping in view the efforts of the Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Resources, the LPG distributors have agreed to reduce their margin from 20 percent to 15 percent. He said that the LPG has been imported to fill the demand and supply gap since 2014, about 40 percent to 50 percent LPG equal to local production has been imported regularly in previous years, which is increasing with every passing year.
Comments
Comments are closed.