KARACHI: The deregulation of compressed natural gas (CNG) price in Sindh has become a sheer burden on vehicle owners as some dealers have pushed up gas price by Re1 to Rs2 per kg.

A rift among the members of the All Pakistan CNG Association has emerged over the past two days as some have raised the price while others are reluctant to follow suit.

Some members have increased the CNG price on the pretext that price of petrol was also increased by Rs2.49

per litre on November 1 — which obviously has no direct and indirect relation with CNG.

On the other hand, the demand to raise price of gas also appeared to be unjustified as the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited had not raised the gas price, some road users told Dawn.

Some dealers have come out with Re1 per kg increase, and they might further push up the gas price by another Re1 per kg to come at par with filling stations, which have made a price jump of Rs2 per kg.

The new CNG price now hovers between Rs78 and Rs79 per kg as compared to Rs77 per kg taking the total price escalation by over Rs12 per kg since the deregulation of CNG price started in December 2016 when it was selling at Rs67.50 per kg.

Some dealers in F.B. Area, who are against the price hike, have put on display a small banner assuring customers of keeping the price unchanged at Rs 77 per kg with full pressure.

Surprisingly in the previous practice, the CNG dealers had acted like a cartel in raising gas price simultaneously. But this time round, differences have cropped up amongst the dealers.

“Dealers are now free to act on their own after price deregulation and we cannot prevent any price fluctuation,” a senior leader of the All Pakistan CNG Association, who asked not to be named, said claiming that he had been asking his members to take back unjustified price hike due to fall in saving ratio between petrol and CNG.

“Some 20-25 per cent CNG station owners out of 323 stations in Karachi and 303 owners in interior of Sindh have raised the price,” he claimed.

“The saving ratio of running a vehicle on CNG compared with petrol will drop by two per cent which was 30-32 per cent after jump in petrol price from Nov 1,” he added.

Besides rising price of CNG, consumers have been taken for a costly ride due to broken and non-functional price and gas weight digital calculation meters on the dispenser at most pumps.

For example, if a consumer asks a dealer to fill gas of Rs200, the dealers stop the meter at Rs197-198 per kg avoiding to pay the balance amount to the vehicle owner.

Many consumers say the government should check dealers fleecing the consumers.

There is also no check by any authority to monitor low pressure of gas at various CNG outlets.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2017