Petroleum minister defends gas rates hike

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Monday defended the recent hike in gas tariff, saying both the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) and Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) have a liability of Rs142 billion.

“Had the government not jacked up gas rates, there would have been Rs154 billion additional debt,” he said while speaking at a luncheon of tribal elders from NA-59 constituency.

Slamming the previous Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) government, the minister said it gave Rs55 billion schemes just to win the 2018 general elections.

He lamented that the gas companies lost Rs50 billion revenue to gas theft in a year and added the government was bearing Rs1,280 billion circular debt.

Earlier, on Feb 2, the minister said that the government was taking measures to ensure uninterrupted gas supply across the country.

Addressing a press conference, Ghulam Sarwar said that offshore drilling had been started in January and good news was expected by end of March. He said so far, 3500 meter deep drilling had been done out of 5500 meters.

The minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan visited friendly countries to seek foreign investment into the country. He said Saudi Arabia had expressed interest to invest more than 10 billion dollars into the country.

He said the current government took difficult decision of rationalizing the gas rates in order to take the gas companies out of loss.

The minister lashed out at the previous government for buying gas at higher rates and causing a loss of Rs154 bn to the national exchequer each year.