EDITORIAL: One can only wish SSGC (Sui Southern Gas Company) good luck as it goes about meeting its own ambitious target of registering about 500,000 unauthorised gas users by the next fiscal year.

Because, while there’s no doubt this is a “determined effort to curb illegal gas usage”, it is shocking that gas is being stolen on such a large scale and the best authorities have been able to do so far is come up with yet another plan that looks impressive on paper. Gas is not a physical commodity, after all, which is why it is transported in pipes; mostly underground.

So, stealing it is also a very different enterprise than the usual highwaymen diverting supplies from here to there. It involves digging, setting up pumps, and then capturing it; all of which requires a high level of expertise.

And that is simply not possible without active collusion of individuals and outfits who work with natural gas. That obviously begs the question of why no attention has been paid to finding and sorting out elements that have been facilitating gas theft all this time; at least why no such ambitious plans have reached the press?

It turns out that “substantial progress” has already been made, with approximately 150,000 unauthorised users identified. Of those, 29,000 have already been successfully integrated into the unauthorised gas claim mechanism. SSGC calls this a “significant milestone in the ongoing campaign against gas theft”.

It may be so but these thieves deserve to be named and shamed and we earnestly urge SSGC to do that. It’s also been reported that “extensive negotiations and consultations” with regulatory bodies have yielded necessary approval to pursue gas theft claims from unauthorised users in Karachi. And “collaborative discussions” with Ogra (Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority) and SBCA (Sindh Building Control Authority) have “paved the way for this crucial initiative aimed at combating illegal gas use”.

Impressive as all this is, the proof of the pudding still lies in the eating. The press has got only too used to reporting tall claims that aren’t always followed by on-ground actions and results. SSGC sounds just as optimistic as every other time about getting a handle on this problem this time.

But even if it registers more and more users, and does not undertake the internal cleansing act that is just as desperately needed, this issue will keep cropping up in the future. That is why it must involve law enforcement agencies to clean house first.

Nobody needs to be reminded that the state of companies like SSGC has become just as precarious as the bigger economy. And there’s simply no more time to keep finding holes to plug.

Problems need to be dealt with at the source. And a big part of the problem of gas theft is traced back to institutions like SSGC themselves. How quickly the rot is cleaned from within will determine how effectively this type of corruption will be dealt with. But that will require heads to roll and examples to be made that will set lasting precedents. And that, in turn, will require will at the very top, where the most important decisions are made.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024