All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has decided to become a party to the CNG petition for working out a new pricing mechanism in the Supreme Court. The APTMA leadership made this announcement in a hurriedly-called press conference on Wednesday at the APTMA Punjab office.
Chairman APTMA has further demanded restricting the CNG usage exclusively to the public transport in order to provide genuine relief to the masses. While apprehending a quantum increase in the gas utilisation by the CNG sector, the APTMA leadership said this situation would lead to unbearable economic fallout ahead in the country.
He has also proposed of restricting gas quota to 7 percent to the CNG sector as per claim of the CNG Association in the Supreme Court. He said the CNG sector was utilising 400MMCFD on both the SNGPL and the SSGC network besides another 75MMCFD as Unfound Gas (UFG) in actual, which comes around 20 percent utilisation of gas by the CNG sector. The CNG Association, on the other hand, has pleaded before the Supreme Court that it was utilising merely 7 percent gas on both networks, which was a wrong percentage.
He said gas utilisation of 475MMCFD by the CNG sector would cost Pakistan economy to the tune of Rs 240 billion against existing loss of Rs 300 billion under the head of circular debt.
He deplored that there was no specific quota allocation for the CNG sector. Resultantly, Pakistan has topped the CNG population of vehicles against ranking at 24th in gas production worldwide, he added. He said there is an urgent need of setting the direction of the economy straight and it is a right time to decide whether we should consume gas in private vehicles or generate cheap electricity through its prudent use to create millions of jobs in textile, fertiliser and power sectors of the country.
According to him, cracking down the abnormal profits of the CNG sector by the Supreme Court was highly appreciative but it should also restrict the utilisation of gas to the public transport. A similar decision was taken by the Indian court restricting gas utilisation to the public sector, he added. He said that APTMA was stick to its demand of curtailing gas supply for 90 days to the CNG sector during winter to keep exports and employment intact in country.