ISLAMABAD, Aug 8: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Petroleum unanimously rejected on Wednesday a decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet to revise prices of petroleum products on a weekly basis and directed that the pricing should be done on a monthly basis.

A meeting of the committee presided over by its chairman Engineer M. Tariq Khattak also criticised non-implementation of its last week’s recommendation seeking withdrawal of the recent price increase and reversion to the July 31 level.

It criticised what it called corruption in the award of CNG marketing licences, gas thefts and illegal recruitments in public sector companies like SSGC, SNGPL and the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited.The committee criticised the ECC for rejecting the professional advice of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) against weekly pricing of petroleum products.

It was pointed out that weekly price revision would cause problems to consumers because retailers tended to stop selling products in anticipation of price hikes and slow down purchases from marketing companies in the event of a price reduction. As a result, the weekly pricing would make it more difficult for the regulator to monitor the situation across the country.

“We unanimously recommend that the oil pricing should be done at least on monthly basis,” said the committee and called for withdrawal of the ECC decision in larger public interest.

Managing Director of Pakistan State Oil Naeem Yahya Mir testified that weekly pricing would add to public suffering because retailers could not be controlled by the marketing companies.

Additional secretary of the petroleum ministry told the committee that its recommendation about reverting the prices to the July 31 level had been forwarded to the prime minister and it was now up to the political leadership to take a decision. He assured the committee that its recommendation about withdrawal of the ECC decision about weekly pricing would also be forwarded to the premier.

PPP’s firebrand MNA Jamshed Dasti accused the petroleum ministry of disrespecting the parliament and ignoring recommendations of the standing committee and humiliating the public through the weekly pricing system.

The committee criticised the government for not implementing the prime minister’s decision about issuing marketing licences to owners of 65 CNG outlets who had completed all formalities, made investments and installed gas meters. If the government did not want to issue licences, the committee said, it should compensate the applicants for investments they had already made and losses suffered by them.

Shaikh Aftab Ahmad and Birjees Tahir of the PML-N said that when the prime minister had not approved a policy about under-construction CNG stations, Ogra had illegally issued 455 licences but now that a policy was in place licences to 65 applicants were being denied or delayed.

Jamshed Dasti accused former Ogra chief Tauqir Sadiq of being involved in corruption of billions of rupees because he had fixed Rs3 million commission for issuing a marketing licence and his conduct on gas pricing. But he has not been arrested despite Supreme Court’s orders because he was a close relative of PPP secretary general Jehangir Badar.

The committee objected to payment of salary and perks to Ogra member Mansoor Mazzaffar who had been arrested by the National Accountability Bureau about six months ago and pointed out that in the same case Ogra’s member finance was still holding his position.

The Ogra chairman said the cabinet division was responsible for payment of salaries and perks of the chairman and members of the authority and the cabinet division had been informed about the arrest of its member, but did not receive any directive to stop his salary.

Ogra could not act on its own in service matters, he said.

The committee sought a detailed report on recruitments made in the SSGC, SNGPL and OGDCL over the past year for investigation. It directed the Punjab police to cooperate with the SNGPL staff in registering cases against gas theft.