Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources Secretary Ijaz Chaudhry on Monday informed the special committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the government would soon bring in legislation in parliament for making gas theft a cognisable offence.
He said the Ministry of Petroleum had proposed amendments in Offences Law Against Property of Theft of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) 1860 to check gas theft and the piece of legislation would be soon introduced in parliament. The committee, which met with Yasmeen Rehman in the chair, expressed serious concern over the absence of any law to deal with gas theft cases. The Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) managing director told the committee that OGRA had prevented the company from registering FIRs against gas thieves. Committee member Qamar Zaman Kaira said how could OGRA ask any gas company not to register FIR against gas stealers? “FIRs should be registered against the person who had given such order,” he said. The petroleum secretary also told the committee that an influential person in Punjab was involved in gas theft and a sum of Rs 230 million was outstanding against him on account of arrears. “His gas supply was disconnected but he restored it on his own. We will register an FIR against him now,” he added. The proposed legislation, a copy of which is exclusively available with Pakistan Today, has amended the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (Act XLV of 1860) and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898). A new chapter (XVII-A) has been inserted after Chapter XVII of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (Act XLV of 1860) to provide for punishment for the acts of subversion and theft of oil and gas. The draft law proposes as under:
462B. Tampering with oil and gas pipelines etc: Whoever tampers or attempts to tamper with a facility or main pipeline for transmission or transportation and other related system and equipment to commit theft of petroleum or for the purpose of disrupting supply of petroleum shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment which may extend to fourteen years and with fine which may extend to ten million rupees. 462C. Tampering with auxiliary oil or gas pipeline, etc: Any person who tampers a distribution system or distribution pipeline to commit theft of oil or gas shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to ten years and with a fine which may extend to three million rupees. 462D. Tampering with gas meter, etc: Any person who tampers with any gas meter, regulator, meter index or gas connection to commit theft of gas or for the purpose of unauthorised distributing supply of gas shall be punishable, in case of a domestic consumer, with imprisonment for a term which may extend
to six months and fine which may extend to Rs 10,000 and an industrial, commercial or any other consumer with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years and fine which may extend to one million rupees. 462E. Causing destruction to transmission pipelines: Any person who damages or destroys any transmission line by an act of subversion by explosive material or in any other manner shall be punished with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to 14 years and with fine which may extend to 10 million rupees, but not less than one million rupees.
462F. Punishment for maliciously wasting gas or injuring works: Any person who maliciously causes gas to be wasted or diverted or with intent to cut off the supply of gas, cuts, injures or attempts to cut or injure any pipeline or works shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to five million rupees or with both. 462G. Violation of Gas load management programme: Any person who attempts to or procures or consume gas or abets such act in violation of the instructions issued under the natural gas allocation and management policy or gas load management programme announced by the federal government shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to six months or with fine which may extend to Rs 500,000 or with both, in addition to the disconnection of gas supply for a period up to one year. The ministry officials told the committee that the move had been initiated by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, which often failed to take action against consumers and employees of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) involved in gas theft. They said that under the existing laws, OGRA could get the individuals and organisations stealing gas to pay bills of up to one year only.
On the other side, a high official of the SNGPL told Pakistan Today that 100 percent control on gas theft was impossible even after the imposition of the law, as the SNGPL had not enough staff to monitor 75,000kms of supply network.
Govt devising laws to curb gas theft
