ISLAMABAD: Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has failed in implementing its decision ie, sale of Liquefied Petroleum Gas at the prices fixed by the authority. According to Mohammed Irfan Khokhar, Chairman All Pakistan LGP Distribution Association, the regulator on December 8 fixed a maximum reasonable price of the commodity at Rs 125.33 per kg - a reduction of Rs 50 per kg in plain/urban areas and a reduction of up to Rs 90 in hilly areas.
"We are bound to sell LPG at higher rates because we are getting costly gas. We request the regulator to cancel the licenses of marketing companies which do not sell LPG at the prescribed price," he said. He said the regulatory body had directed the LPG marketing companies to ensure that the LPG consumer price of their company did not exceed the abovementioned consumer price, but not a single company had followed the Ogra's directions.
Ogra fixed the maximum consumer price for 100 percent locally produced LPG at Rs 1,477 for 11.8 kg cylinder, which made the price per kilogram as Rs 125.16, but marketing companies were charging their own rates, Khokhar said. The maximum consumer price for 100 percent imported LPG will be Rs 1,644 per 11.8 kg cylinder, that is Rs 139.32 per kilogram and the maximum consumer price for local and imported mixed LPG has been fixed by Ogra at Rs 1,479 for 11.8kg cylinder, which is Rs 125.33 per kg.
He said that as per Ogra notification the LPG price in hilly areas including Murree, Muzafarabad, Gilgit-Baltsitan, Mansehra, Fata and Balakot should be between Rs 128 to Rs 142 per kg, but the current prices in those areas were between Rs 215 to Rs 175 per kg.
Similarly, the notified LPG price for the plains including Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Rahimyar Khan, Multan, Attock, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar is Rs 125.33 per kg, but the commodity is being sold at over Rs 150 per kg in aforementioned areas. Contrary to the assessments by the regulator, LPG price in Rawalpindi/Islamabad and Attock is Rs 170 per kg, while in Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat, Sukkur, Rahimyar Khan and Sadiqabad, LPG is available at Rs 165 per kg to the consumers. The retail price of LPG in Jhang, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Multan, Gujrat and Gujranwala is Rs 155 per kg.