ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Petroleum has approved a summary with the objective to banning the use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in private vehicles and shifting CNG stations to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). According to Petroleum Ministry sources, Dr Asim Hussain, Prime Minister's Advisor on Petroleum and Natural Resources, has approved a summary and sent it to the Economic Co-ordination Committee of the Cabinet for final approval.
The ministry has also proposed in the summary to bring CNG price up to 80 percent of the petrol price. The summary also contains proposal to limit the use of CNG to public transport. The government would provide incentives to the CNG station willing to convert to LPG auto stations.
An official said that if the ECC approved the summary CNG would only be provided to Public Service Vehicles (PSVs) in future, adding that bringing CNG price at 80 percent parity of petrol mean the commodity's price would cross Rs 110 per kg, if other taxes remained intact.
The government has also planned not to provide operating cost of Rs 7.90 per kg to the CNG station. Under the new pricing plan the Ministry has proposed to include gas price, value added cost, Gas Infrastructure Development Surcharge (GIDS) and General Sales Tax (GST). The profit margin for the owners of CNG stations would be fixed at par with Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and petroleum dealers. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) would determine vale added cost of the CNG stations after public hearing, the official said quoting the summary.