The government is considering a plan to cut the powers of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) chairman and members after facing stiff resistance from the regulator for putting Rs 9 billion burden of gas theft on gas consumers.
Sources said a minister of the incumbent government was pressing the president and the prime minister to the amend OGRA Ordinance to delegate powers to the federal government to fire chairman and members of OGRA whenever it felt so. At present, the federal government has to send a case to Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) to remove the chairman or members of OGRA if they are found guilty of some misconduct or malpractices. But the federal government wants to end the role of the FPSC in the sacking with immediate effect.
The plan has been considered after the government faced stiff opposition from OGRA to shift the Rs 9 billion burden of gas stolen by the rich and the mighty to the poor, which the cabinet has already approved. The cabinet in its meeting on October 11 principally approved shifting the burden of a whopping Rs 9 billion on to poor gas consumers for gas theft and the non-recovery of gas bills by utilities. The sources said OGRA Chairman Saeed Ahmed Khan had bitterly opposed the moving of the summary in the cabinet, arguing that the poor gas consumers should not be punished for gas theft and the inefficiency of recovery of bills at any cost.
However, the powerful cabinet members paid no heed and principally approved the summery. After OGRA earlier rejected a petition by both gas utilities seeking the payment owing, the government adopted another way to get the approval of the summary seeking more fleecing of legitimate consumers who regularly paid their gas bills.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) has already taken notice of the frequent increase in the price of gas and expressed annoyance over what it called the practice of recovering pilferage and theft losses in the supply of compressed natural gas (CNG). The court on October 18 also questioned why consumers had to be burdened through tariff adjustments to cover up the follies of others.
