LAHORE, May 10: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) is making efforts to reduce line losses from 8 per cent to 6 per cent by June to maintain its profit of Rs3.75 billion.

This was stated by SNGPL managing director Abdul Rashid Lone at a press conference here on Thursday.

He said the cut in the line losses would be a great achievement during this financial year as the company was selling the same quantity of gas this year - 18,000 million cubic feet (MMCF) gas - as it did last year.

Of the total sales, 700 MMCF gas was being provided to thermal power plants, he added.

He said gas has been discovered at three places - Tall, Kohat and Karak, in the NWFP.

He said the SNGPL was spending Rs12 billion on laying pipeline from Islamabad to Abbottabad and Multan-Sahiwal-Lahore to make efficient supply of gas.

He said the SNGPL was spending Rs8 billion to Rs10 billion on supply of gas to different parts of the country while the government contribution was Rs5 billion to Rs6 billion.

Mr Lone said the SNGPL has recovered Rs420 million of outstanding dues against various government departments, including railways, hospitals, police, etc.

A committee was working to recover the rest of the arrears, he said and expressed the hope that it would be recovered in a few months, he added.

He said the SNGPL was paying attractive salaries to its employees which were revised after every two years. A proposal was also being considered to increase salaries up to Rs30,000 to make the jobs more lucrative and stopping the staff from leaving the jobs. —APP