Government has increased the CNG prices up to 70 percent which is completely unjustified.
These decisions of the government have devastated impact on already ailing economy, Munawar Mughal, Chairman Founder group ICCI and Member of Managing Committee, FPCCI has said in a statement.
He said that CNG stations were being closed for 2days but now government has decided to close down all the CNG stations for 3 days, which would not be acceptable by the business community.
Mughal was of the view that, 15 years ago, government has introduced the CNG technology for the purpose of reduction in petrol import bill. That was the time when petrol was sold at Rs.18 while diesel was sold at Rs.8 per liter. On contrary, prices of petrol and diesel have cross the limit of Rs.80 per liter, he added.
Chairman Founder group ICCI said that Pakistan has abundance of natural gas reserves which needs to be explored but unprecedented gas price hike by the government was unjustified. He said that government was continuously increasing the energy prices and wanted to inline with international energy prices which could be considered as undue burden on the traders and common man.
Successive governments had given various directions and offered different incentives for enhancing investment in the CNG sector, almost 3300 CNG stations were working throughout the country and construction of 1000 CNG stations were in the pipeline, he maintained.
Munawar Mughal said that investment of trillion of rupees have been done in CNG sector. He said that gas department has Rs.120 billion as security while more than 4 million vehicles have been using CNG.
He said that workers of CNG stations were also facing problems because of stations closure for 3days. He urged the government to withdraw this decision and provide relief to general masses.