Recently Government of Pakistan, without consulting the stake holders involved, imposed ban on import of CNG Kits and CNG Cylinders and has restricted the OEM companies i.e. Pak Suzuki Motor Company, Indus Motors Company and also after market installers to stop conversion of vehicles to CNG.
It is pertinent to understand the background as to why GOP started vigorously promoting CNG around year 2000 onwards with the full knowledge of the natural gas reserves available in the country and the projected consumption of natural gas by other sectors of the economy.
In late nineties the GOP was heavily borrowing from International Donors for the health sector. The major donors were of the view that two major factors affecting the health of the general masses in Pakistan were; a) non-availability of clean drinking water and b) the very high level of pollution in our urban centers. The Donors were reluctant to help in the health sector unless the GOP took concrete measures to eliminate these root causes. This pressure of the donors was thus the main impetus for promotion of CNG as a short cut to improve the urban air quality.
The civil society, especially in Lahore was cognizant to the air quality in Lahore, and as a consequence to their movement under the leader ship of Dr Pervaiz Hassan the ‘Lahore Clean Air Commission’ was formed by the Punjab High Court in 2005. The LCAC, apart from negotiating with the OEM’s the time frame for introduction of European vehicle emission standards also proposed:
Immediate ban on registration of 2-stroke auto/motorcycle rickshaws
Phasing out of existing rickshaws in one year. Introduction of dedicated CNG buses for public transport conforming to Euro-III standards Phasing out of existing buses in two years i.e. by 1-7-2007.
The effect of this initiative of LCAC can now be felt by any visitor to the city of Lahore especially in those areas where non-CNG auto rickshaws are not allowed. In the urban centre of Karachi, and parts of the country where air quality was deteriorating at fast pace due to pollution from old model petrol vehicles and two stroke Auto Rickshaws, environment conditions are much cleaner than before.This contribution of CNG towards the better health of the urban masses needs to be acknowledged and quantifies in monitory terms.
The present policy makers intend to replace CNG as a vehicle fuel with LPG primarily on the pretext that natural gas is in short supply. An artificial shortage has been created in winter months by releasing natural gas to industries on 12 months basis with whom SNGPL had a nine month supply agreement. This is being done by vested elements to promote the interest of a powerful LPG group without even considering the safety or economic aspects of LPG as a vehicle fuel and its large scale availability and effect on forests due to non availability of LPG in the far flung areas of the country.
From the vehicle owner’s prospective the attraction for CNG is NOT its environment impact, but its cost viz-a-viz petrol and diesel. It is this differential in the operating cost of a vehicle that is the driving force to opt for CNG. The price of LPG being a couple of per cent less than that of petrol, or sometimes even higher has no attraction for the consumers. Discontinuing the use of CNG as a vehicle fuel will only add to the economic worries of the government that will have to spend a couple of billion dollars more to import additional quantities of petrol and diesel because of capacity constraints of the local refineries.
IMPACT OF CNG INVESTMENT
The decision by the government will adversely affect hundreds of thousands of workers directly and indirectly. Business investment in the sector currently exceeds Rs108b, with foreign investment element of Rs2b, public investment of Rs120b, revenue contribution of Rs240b/annum and savings in petrol estimated at Rs222b/annum.
CNG CONSUMPTION
We appreciate the Govts desire to conserve Natural Gas and to ensure its continued availability for other priority sectors. However, transport is accounting only 7.7per cent, out of which the gas consumption of new vehicles is estimated to be as low as 0.38per cent of total Natural gas consumption in Pakistan.
Source Pakistan Energy Book 2010 pubished by M.O. Pet. & NR
