Due to a three-day gas suspension for the CNG sector, the petrol consumption in the country has swelled by 27 percent in November against the same period of last year. The break-up of import data indicated that High Speed Diesel (HSD) volumes recorded an increase of 13 percent, said All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) Chairman Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha.
"APCNGA believes this increase is mainly due to increase in gas loadshedding to CNG sector," he said, warning the government that if gas supply to CNG sector was not restored immediately, the country would have to compromise on restraining its import bill.
Paracha said that during the month of November, petrol sales touched a record high of 250,000 tons, up by a massive 15.5 percent from the previous high of 217,000 tons recorded last month. The sales are 27 percent up from the last year sales, while the product contribution in the sales mix has increased to 14 percent as against 10 percent in the same period last year, he added.
The APCNGA chairman said that government was saving billions of rupees annually on petroleum due to CNG usage. However, he said, the gas loadshedding to CNG would further escalate burden on the national exchequer. Paracha said that Pakistan's oil import bill had witnessed a phenomenal rise of 53.9 percent in the first four months (July-October) of the current financial year as the total oil import bill reached a level of $5.013 billion against $3.257 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
He said that the demand of natural gas would drastically increase during winter, while the economy's power generation was currently heavily dependent on oil and any further substitution of oil with gas would dent forex reserves of the country and increase the already mounted circular debt in the energy chain.