PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has suspended operation of a notification issued by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) about an increase in gas tariff and stopped the utility from adding the increased amount to monthly bills of a leading cement manufacturing unit.

A PHC bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Qaiser Rasheed directed the federal government, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and the SNGPL to file comments on the points raised in a petition filed by the Lucky Cement Limited (LCL) within a fortnight.

The petitioner has asked the court to declare the notification and Ogra’s July 4, 2014 decision on the company’s petition seeking tariff raise for the fiscal year 2014-15 illegal and liable to be set aside.

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It requested the court to stop the SNGPL from recovering any increase in gas tariff.

Shumail Ahmad Butt, the counsel for the petitioner, said that the notification had been issued in contravention of section 8 (1) of the Ogra Ordinance 2002 read with relevant rules because a mandatory public hearing had not been conducted before its issuance.

He said that the Lahore High Court had suspended the operation of the notification.

The court issued notices to the respondents and fixed next hearing on Dec 1.

“Till then, operation of impugned notification shall remain suspended,” it ruled. “However, petitioner / company shall deposit the utility bills regularly at (the rate of) the tariff prevailing prior to issuance of the notification.”

The petition says that previously the SNGPL was charging the consumers a tariff notified on Jan 1, 2013. Later, its regional office filed a tariff raise petition and Ogra decided the case on July 3, 2014. But the SNGPL did not implement the decision for a year.

Later, it says, the SNGPL exorbitantly increased the tariff through a notification issued on Aug 31, 2015, which has exposed the petitioner to a financial impact to the tune of Rs105.622 million per month. The tariff has been increased by around 20 to 30 per cent through the notification.

The petition says that Ogra issued the order for the fiscal year 2014-15 and it could not be implemented in the next fiscal year, which is a separate fiscal year, requiring fresh proceedings for tariff review.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2015