All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) here on Friday announced that its member stations would observe a complete strike from January 05 (Monday) if the government did not withdraw the recently announced hike in the gas tariff. The Association Chairman Tariq Kandan along with other representatives while addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Friday announced this.
While a representative of the All Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association, Mehar Arshad also announced support to the strike call by the CNG association. He said that final decision in this regard, however, would be taken at a meeting scheduled in Karachi on Saturday. Tariq Kandan said that recent increase in gas tariff would raise the CNG prices by Rs 4.50 per kilograms. He alleged that some quarters were trying to bring the CNG prices at par with petrol, which would ruin this industry.
He said that CNG station owners had invested some Rs 180 billion and another Rs 42 billion was invested by the owners of the vehicles in shape of CNG kit fitting. He said there were 2,800 CNG stations across the country out of which 1,700 were in Punjab.
He said that some of the CNG stations were installed on lease and they still had to pay back their loans to banks. He said that some 500,000 rickshaws are running on CNG and in case of closure of CNG stations, those would not only be stopped but their owners would not be able to pay back the loan to banks.
Tariq dispelled the impression that CNG stations were creating gas shortage and said demand of domestic users rises from 20 percent to 60 percent in winter season and gas companies were unable to meet this demand. He termed it as a result of faulty strategies by gas companies.