Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) will establish a facilitation desk at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry headed by LCCI Vice president Zeshan Khalil. It was decided at a meeting between LCCI president Malik Tahir Javaid and managing director SNGPL Amjad Latif at the Lahore Chamber on Wednesday.
It was also decided that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry would appoint a focal person for coordination with SNGPL on day-to-day issues. LCCI president and MD SNGPL also formed a committee comprising LCCI vice president Zeshan Khalil, Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry, Muhammad Arshad Chaudhry, Adeeb Iqbal Sheikh and Mian Muhammad Nawaz to facilitate businessmen in connection with their gas related problems.
The SNGPL managing director said that set up of facilitation desk at LCCI and appointment of focal person would help to resolve issues in the shortest possible time. He informed the house that new connections for industries, commercial activities and housing societies are open as gas supply situation is better after RLNG arrived.
He said, "RLNG is being promoted as alternative fuel." About the new gas connections, he said that most of them have been processed. He said gas losses are coming down while further improvement will be witnessed with the passage of time.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI president Malik Tahir Javaid said that industrial gas connections were temporarily shifted to RLNG from Sui gas on the pretext of gas shortage. The RLNG is 122 percent more costly as compared with the natural gas, he said.
The Pakistani merchandise are already facing tough challenge in the international market while exports have fallen by around $6 billion within last couple of years because of high input cost. He urged the SNGPL managing director to re-shift the industrial gas connections from RLNG to the old Sui gas tariff connections. He also urged the government to give 25 percent subsidy to those industries which are using RLNG as a fuel.