GAS is, or at least should be, the topic of conversation today. Distributors, commuters and even one provincial government, if not two, all have reason to be upset with new plans under which CNG stations will be closed for three days a week in Punjab and two days in Sindh. Agriculturalists predict doom in the near-doubling of gas tariffs for fertilizer production. Domestic consumers are unhappy with a cabinet-approved 15 per cent hike in gas prices. There is also to be an 18 per cent increase in rates for commercial users and a 36 per cent price hike for the power sector, which will further burden the consumers of their products. Not only this, a substantial soaring of CNG prices has only been delayed in view of a case pending before the Sindh High Court, and CNG sellers fear it is only a matter of days before travel on the fuel becomes prohibitively expensive. This is all by way of the latest gas management plan, the official explanation for which is that the country has been unable to find new reservoirs to meet rising demand.
Negative political fallout is unavoidable, even if there has been an attempt to make the plan look like a justified and thoroughly considered measure. While President Zardari was busy impressing upon Tehran how vital the Iran-Pakistan gas project is to his country, Prime Minister Gilani directed the federal adviser on energy to draft a programme after consultation with all stakeholders. But consultation in Pakistan often means hearing out a few lobbies and not necessarily the incorporation of public sentiment into policy. Energy, as it has turned out again and again, is a subject where even lobbies are hard to please. It is one lucrative sector the government cannot help tapping for quick revenues, given that energy is something the people cannot do without.
Popular perceptions about the gas crisis are based on a general lack of confidence in the government's desire or ability to come up with people-friendly measures, the state's record of not delivering on its vows, and, in this particular case, its failure to come up with a solid revenue-generation structure supported by a fair, non-discriminatory direct-taxation system. For example, charging heavy gas rates on fertilizers is seemingly an arrangement under which farmers are being asked to contribute to the state kitty indirectly to make up for the stubborn opposition of large landholders to the levy of a tax on agriculture. It comes in a long line of temporary answers that have raised more issues than they have solved.