July 02, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 27, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 1: A ‘calculation/conversion error’ admitted by the federal government in announcing a Rs13 increase in price of compressed natural gas (CNG) could have earned gas stations windfall gains overnight, but consumers lost millions of rupees.

Officials woke up to the error some 20 hours late, issuing a ‘clarification’ late on Tuesday evening claiming that the “actual/intended” increase was Rs5.58 a kilogram.

On Monday night the government had dropped a bombshell by announcing a hefty 31 per cent increase in gas tariff for all consumer categories, pushing the retail price of CNG to over Rs52 a kg – just a day after raising the petrol and diesel prices by at least 10 per cent.

However, the director-general of gas, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, came out with an explanation that “wrong calculation in the actual increase of gas price” had resulted in the release of “incorrect information” and that the “actual increase was Rs5.58 per kg and not Rs13”.

“It shows the government’s incompetence and its non-serious attitude towards the people already hit hard by price hikes,” Mr Waseem told Dawn at a gas filling station.

He doubted that the government’s admission of the mistake or its apology was genuine and said that it would do him no good because he had already paid at the rate of Rs51.8 a kg for the CNG.

“The government cannot justify this legalised robbery … They (people running the government),” are indifferent to people’s misery,” said another consumer, Mr Iftikhar, who had to pay Rs450 for CNG refill, far more than what he had to pay earlier.

According to a government handout, the actual increase in the price of natural gas being supplied to CNG stations was “Rs4.3 a kg, and not Rs13 kg as inadvertently replied … during a briefing by Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is looking after the petroleum portfolio”.

According to the handout, the revised price of natural gas being supplied to the CNG stations, as notified by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), was Rs388.32 per million Btu (British thermal unit) against the previous price of Rs291.36 per million Btu.

“Due to a conversion/calculation error, it was stated to be an increase of Rs13 per kg, instead of the actual increase of Rs4.3 per kg, excluding the government taxes.”

“Thus the net increase in natural gas price for CNG stations, including government taxes, works out to be Rs5.58 per kg.”

The government also regretted the inconvenience caused to the public.