September 09, 2007	Sunday	Sha'aban 26, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 8: There is difference of opinion among the members of the LPG Association of Pakistan over filing a petition in the court against the government if the pricing policy is not reversed and relief is not provided to consumers.

The association had earlier urged the Supreme Court to take suo motu action in this matter.

However, Progas Pakistan Limited, a member of LPGAP said on Saturday that no formal decision had been taken by the association and the views expressed by the LPGAP may pertain to an individual member and do not represent views of the main body of the association.

The company’s general manager finance and administration Muhammad Akhtar said, “We strongly and whole-heartedly support the government’s deregulation policy as do a number of major companies in the industry.”

In the past the LPG producers’ price was kept artificially low, however, the end consumer prices were always high and Ogra had to intervene on a number of occasions to keep the end consumer price at affordable level.

Cost of locally-produced LPG is still much more economical than imported LPG because imported gas costs sea freight and inland freight and has to be transported to the upcountry.

He said distributors were hand in hand with certain companies — that were producers as well as marketing companies — and has over a period of 12 months deprived the government of over Rs5 billion in revenue and taxes and did not pass on the benefit to the consumers through lower prices.

He added that deregulation of LPG industry had brought stability in end consumer price. It had also put an end to artificial shortage of LPG and increased product availability in the market.

Since the deregulation of the LPG industry, non-competitive businesses - that had the benefit of arbitrary allocations and quotas - are having a hard time adjusting to a level-playing field. The barriers to entry to the LPG industry were lowered significantly due to deregulation.

Meanwhile, Chairman LPGAP Iqbal Z. Ahmed said that some 36-37 companies out of total 44 members had agreed to go to the courts. However, he said that these companies would take up the matter to the courts on individual basis instead of going under the banner of the association.

He said the member companies had the right to take the decision on their own, especially on this issue. The association has no right to force any company to file a petition even if the majority of members are ready to go to the courts, he added.

However, the LPGAP’s press statement this week had actually created an impression in the media that the association was considering filing a petition in the court over pricing policy.