LAHORE, Sept 6: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has sent a summary to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) seeking permission to charge Rs25,000 from those desiring domestic gas connection on an urgent basis.

“On Friday, we have forwarded the summary to Ogra in order to seek its approval for the decision taken by the SNGPL in a meeting. The company plans to charge Rs25,000 from those consumers seeking domestic gas connections on an urgent basis,” SNGPL managing director Arif Hameed told Dawn on Friday.

He said the decision to charge the urgent fee had been taken to save thousands of consumers from private people/agents who were allegedly receiving huge money from them on the pretext of providing them early connections.

Mr Hameed said the company had allocated 10 per cent of the entire planned or available gas connections for urgent applicants.

“The decision will not affect those who have already submitted applications or deposited the demand notices on normal fee or those planning to submit applications on normal fee. We have allocated 90 per cent gas connection quota for such consumers,” he clarified.

About the timeframe for applicants of urgent fee, the MD said the SNGPL initially planned to provide connections to such consumers within three months.

“However, the modalities, such as timeframe, submission of applications, issuance of demand notices and the provision of connections will be finalized as soon as we receive approval from Ogra in this regard,” he said.