LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday reprimanded the federal government for failing to facilitate the industries regarding payment of utility bills during the lockdown.

“It is a very pathetic state of affairs that on the one hand, the federal government is avowing that it is trying hard to keep the economy moving but on the other, it has not framed a policy to facilitate the industrial consumers towards payment of their utility bills,” Justice Shujaat Ali Khan observed, allowing a petition filed by a company against gas disconnection and registration of a case on nonpayment of gas bill due to the lockdown.

The judge directed the SNGPL to restore gas supply to the petitioner-company, subject to payment of first installment of the bills.

Earlier, Raheel Kamran Sheikh advocate told the court that his client, Masters Tiles & Ceramics, could not pay gas bill for the months of March and April 2020 due to the pandemic-related lockdown. He said the petitioner requested the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) for the facility of installments of the bills but the respondent authority not only turned down the request but also disconnected the gas connection and registered a criminal case against the petitioner. He said the SNGPL also made efforts for encashment of bank guarantees of the petitioner.

Restores a company’s gas supply cut off over bills non-payment

The counsel argued though the government had introduced certain incentives for the business community, in particular the construction sector, but the SNGPL was not accommodating the petitioner/company for payments of the bills despite the fact that it never defaulted since 1995.

Advocate Sheikh pointed out that the Islamabad High Court and the Peshawar High Court had recently granted relief to the industries against the similar actions of the SNGPL during the lockdown.

To a court’s query, Deputy Attorney General Asad Ali Bajwa stated that the federal government had only facilitated domestic consumers to pay monthly bills in installments and no decision regarding industrial consumers had been made.

SNGPL counsel Anwaar Hussain said the company, being a collecting agency, could not be compelled to restore gas connection without payment of the bill as it had to make payments to the Pakistan State Oil and the Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) suppliers. He said the orders passed by the other high courts had been assailed before the Supreme Court.

Mr Hussain argued that the matter related to any concession to the industrial consumers was pending with the Economic Coordination Council (ECC) and the SNGPL could not waive off gas bill of a consumer until any decision by the council.

The counsel said there would be a flood of the cases on behalf of industrial consumers if the request of the petitioner was accepted.

Justice Khan observed that the federal government and the SNGPL had not denied that the industrialists failed to raise funds to pay utility bills due to the pandemic lockdown. He noted that in the instant case, the respondents also admitted that the petitioner/company never defaulted on payment of monthly bills except during the period of the lockdown.

The judge allowed the petition and directed the SNGPL to restore gas supply to the petitioner-company, subject to payment of first installment (Rs100m) in addition to reconnection charges, if any. The judge also directed the petitioner to clear remaining outstanding bills within two equal installments.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2020