December 12, 2002	Thursday	Shawwal 7, 1423

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KARAK, Dec 11: The government is working on a plan to reduce gas prices as per directives of the prime minister, Zafarullah Khan Jamali, Petroleum Minister Norez Shakoor told Dawn.

Asked as to what options his ministry was examining to reduce the gas prices, he said the ministry was looking into a working plan to honour the prime minister’s directive. He said it was difficult at the moment to say how much reduction was possible.

A senior government official however said that it would be very difficult to persuade the international donor agencies to agree on gas price reduction.

He said that under the $300 million structural adjustment credit of the World Bank, Pakistan was committed to doing away with subsidies available to the domestic consumers in a period of three years.

Under the loan agreement, Pakistan has put in place a system to revise gas prices on biannual basis in March and September every year, he said.

He said that as a result of dismantling of the gas price agreement of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), the gas price would go up by at least 130 per cent in five years while the government has to absorb increases in international oil prices on the basis of which the local producer prices are revised every six months in January and July.

The only solution, said the official, is to seek a waiver from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to provide relief to the consumers in gas prices.