The Cabinet Committee on Regulatory Bodies (CCRB) has directed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to investigate cause of inflated gas bills issued this month and submit a report to the prime minister next week.
The Cabinet Committee, which met here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, reviewed the performance of the regulatory bodies.
An official press release said that the prime minister directed the regulatory bodies to initiate immediate action on receipt of public complaints and take measures to redress public complaints.
"The culture of addressing public complaints on priority basis should be introduced in the regulatory bodies," he added. The committee also directed Ogra to streamline its process of granting licences for LPG and CNG and issue all licences in line with the pre-determined timeline and no discretionary delays be permitted.
The committee also reviewed the growth and development of telecom sector in the country.
IT & Telecom secretary inform the committee that after introduction of mobile cellular policy in January 2004, mobile connections in the country have increased from 4 million to 25 million; teledensity has increased from 4.6 percent to 20 percent and 25,000 villages now have telephone facility through mobile fixed and local loop wireless services.
The committee was also informed that now the ministry is focusing on improvement of quality of service to the subscribers and introduction of new technologies so that mobile phone can be used for multipurpose functions.
The committee approved the action plan to initiate the process of auctioning the licences for 3G (Third Generation) networks, which will enable the phone companies to provide broadband connectivity, TV picture transmission and multi-media services through mobile handsets.
The committee also authorised the Information Technology & Telecom Ministry to review sector growth framework and continue to apprise the committee on growth prospects and requirements of the sector. Pemra chairman presented the performance of the authority to the committee.
The meeting was informed that as a result of government''s reforms in liberalisation and privatisation of media, there has been direct investment of over Rs 3 billion and nearly 50,000 jobs have been created. With this progressive trend, it is expected that more job opportunities will be available to the general public in near future.-PR