An amount of Rs 37 billion under Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) has been pending against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) took charge there in 2013. In a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Energy here on Monday, an official of the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) said that the federal government is receiving partially GIDC from the provinces; however, the accumulating amount of GIDC since 2013 has been pending against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Senator Mohsin Aziz chaired the committee meeting.
The official of the Petroleum Division told the committee that Rs 37 billion under GIDC have been pending against KP, after the KP industry gained stay orders from the Peshawar High Court. "The matter is also under consideration of the Supreme Court," he added.
He further said that Peshawar High Court clubbed the cases of 700 CNG stations and 200 industrial units against collection of GIDC in KP and obtained stay orders. The parliamentarians' panel recommended the Petroleum Division to resolve the matter of pending amount of GIDC against KP businessmen in a manner adopted in the case of CNG sector.
Earlier, the secretary Petroleum Division stated that waiving off GIDC amounting to Rs 12.5 billion against the CNG sector was referred to the Cabinet Committee on Legislation after seeking formal approval from the cabinet. He maintained that the summary would be forwarded to the cabinet again before submitting it to the Parliament for legislation. "We can waive off past GIDC amount against the CNG sector through an Act of the Parliament," he added.
Rejecting the RLNG to industry of KP, industrialists of KP have demanded the federal government allocate natural gas to industrial states of KP instead of RLNG, which is comparatively costlier than natural gas. President Sarhad Chamber of Commerce, Zahid Ullah Shinwari said the RLNG prices for KP businesses are not affordable and more costly than those of neighboring countries including India and Bangladesh.
Another official of SNGPL informed the committee that the price difference between natural gas and RLNG for commercial and industry is 62 percent. "Natural gas is available for Rs 700 per MMBTU including GIDC against Rs 1,130 excluding GIDC for the RLNG consumers," he stated. Thy industrialists of KP also alleged that the SNGPL is doing daylight robbery by sending excessive billing to industries and captive powers due to super compressibility factors.
Zahid Ullah Shinwari claimed that the industrial consumers of KP are facing over-billing of Rs 3.8 million monthly as super compressibility factor was higher than Punjab and Sindh. He demanded that the rate of super compressibility factor should be fixed in accordance with the practice of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL).
Managing Director SNGPL, Amjad Latif assured the committee that he would submit a report within 15 days, as the matter was new to him. "It is a regional matter, I will look into the technical aspects and submit a report within 15 days," he added. The panel constituted a sub-committee to look into the alleged excessive billing, low gas pressure and GIDC in KP.