PESHAWAR: The owners of the compressed natural gas filling stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Tuesday resented the recent increase in gas price and warned if the government didn’t withdraw move in the next 24 hours, then they would go on strike.

CNG Association Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chairman Mohammad Hammad told reporters at the Peshawar Press Club that the government had increased price of natural gas by 40 per cent, which would increase the CNG price by Rs135 per kilogramme to the misery of owners of filling stations and motorists.

He said the province had more than 522 CNG stations, which had generated around 50,000 direct and indirect jobs, while mostly small public transport vehicles used CNG.

Mr Hammad said higher gas price would adversely affect CNG industry and cause joblessness.

Insist move will harm industry, cause joblessness

“We don’t accept 40 per cent increase in gas price and therefore, it should be withdrawn immediately,” he said. The CNG association chairman said the CNG industry consumed only 15 per cent of the total natural gas.

Accompanied by senior vice president of the association Abdul Hafeez, vice-president Shoaib, general secretary Qamar Alam Khan and Mardan region president Nasir Khan, he said the government had collected huge revenue by imposing the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but the decision hadn’t been implemented in Punjab.

Mr Hammad said the general sales tax was collected from KP gas consumers at the rate of 32 per cent but ironically, the rate was three per cent in Punjab.

He said the gas consumers of KP were charged over 10 per cent advance tax compared to five per cent imposed on the residents of Punjab.

The CNG association chairman said the ‘gross calorific value’ was very high in KP but ironically, it didn’t exist in Punjab.

He said unfortunately, the people were subjected to low gas pressure though the province produced surplus gas and had major contribution to national gas supply compared to other provinces.

Mr Hammad said the gradual increase in gas tariff had hit the poor consumers hard.

He said the people had expected relief in prices from the PTI-led federal government but its policies had turned out to be worse than the former PML-N government’s.

The CNG association chairman called for the federal government’s ‘unfair’ treatment of KP and urged the chief justice of Pakistan, prime minister and federal petroleum and natural resources and finance ministers to step in and ensure the immediate withdrawal of hike in gas price to the relief of people and CNG industry.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2018