Minister for petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain on Thursday said that the Ministry would take up a proposal to evaluate the petroleum prices on fortnightly basis instead of monthly basis.
He said the proposal would be placed before next meeting of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) with an objective to pass on the impact of fluctuation of petroleum prices in international market to consumers.
Responding to the questions, raised in the Question Hour in the
Upper House of the Parliament, he said there were concerns being raised by certain quarters that the decrease in petroleum prices in the international market was not being passed on to the consumers. Therefore, the Ministry had formulated the proposal in this regard, he added.
Responding to a question by Col. (R) Tahir Mashhadi as to why Pakistan was not purchasing oil from Iran on lower rates, the Minister said Iran was itself an oil-deficient country and this was the reason that oil was not being purchased from Iran. Asked whether there was any plan to provide subsidy to the people at large, the Minister said that there was 16 percent GST and Rs 10 petroleum levy per litre of the petroleum products. He said 70 percent of the GST share goes to the provinces and the provincial governments have refused to do so. He said the federal government however had sacrificed its share and instead of Rs 10, the government was charging Rs 7/per litre as petroleum levy.
Responding to another query about import of LNG, the Minister said that after the apex court decision, the Mashal project had become controversial and the sponsors of the project had fallen bankrupt. He said the Ministry was re-initiating the LNG project and the matter would be taken to the ECC.
About the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gasline project, the Minister said the project was on track and it would be completed by year 2014 despite snags. He said the country was facing acute gas shortage and demand was on the rise. He said last year, the diesel import had decreased due to increase in gas consumption. He said if Pakistan continued to waste its precious gas resources on CNG and domestic consumers, it would have to face serious consequences in future. He said a long term constructive policy would have to be evolved to meet the future challenges.
“Due to the absence of a long-term policy, we don’t know what will happen after year 2020 when one of our rich reservoirs would come to an end,” he added. He said OGRA needed to be placed under the Ministry of Petroleum and he had put up this proposal to the Prime Minister which was turned down. He asked the House to make this recommendation to streamline the OGRA affairs. He said Pakistan had rich reserves of tight gas but its exploration was very costly.
State Minister for Water and Power Tasneem Qureshi assured the House that he would conduct visits across country to clamp down power theft and whosoever would be found involved in deliberate power theft would be dealt with accordingly. He said check-meters would be installed at every transformer to reduce the power leakages and losses.
