WITH a wave of the wand, the prime minister has decreed that gas and electricity should be provided uninterrupted to industry throughout the winter.

The decision was made immediately following a roundtable event with potential investors in London. It is hard to escape the impression that this was a spur-of-the-moment decision and that the government is likely to start pulling back from it once it feels the heat of protest from domestic consumers having to endure cold temperatures without gas to warm their homes and water.

Also read: PM orders review of decision on gas supply to textile units

This is the first time a government has tried to prioritise industry ever since the Musharraf-era gas allocation merit order list placed domestic consumers at the top.

Therefore, on the face of it, this looks like a bold decision but its real test will come once the prime minister has to face criticism from domestic consumers, whose voice will be carried via their elected representatives.

Making diversions through executive fiat is nothing more than rudimentary crisis management. What the gas sector needs in order to properly manage the shortages is price reform that encourages the judicious use of the precious resource.

For too long now, domestic consumers have perceived natural gas as a resource that is cheap and abundant whereas in fact it is expensive and scarce. Wasteful appliances proliferate in homes, and will only be replaced by more efficient ones when people become mindful of the cost of the wastage, just like they are in the case of electricity.

End-consumer bills can be kept under control if proper incentives are created for solar geysers, and stoves and heaters are built to burn gas efficiently.

It is also worth asking why a scuffle always breaks out at the very onset of winter among the various categories of stakeholders in the gas sector.

Ad hoc management of this sort is how the previous government had managed winter gas allocations, tweaking the quotas and merit order list along the way, depending on who made the most noise.

This time, there is little doubt that the sheer volume of the protest that the textile body APTMA was able to mount played a role in the decision.

APTMA’s representatives are rightfully congratulating themselves on their victory following the announcement, but they should know that this victory will be short-lived. Until deeper reforms are implemented, squabbling over gas allocations every winter will remain a permanent feature of our political economy.

Published in Dawn, November 15th , 2014