KARACHI, June 30: The Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has expressed surprise over the increase in gas tariffs in contrast to OGRA’s recommendation for reducing the tariffs across the board.

In a press release issued on here on Saturday, KCCI president Mian Abrar Ahmad said that OGRA has adopted the prescribed method WACOG (weighted average cost of gas) wherein the open market crude oil prices are the criteria for determination of the gas tariff.

“Oil prices in the world market drastically reduced from $135-140 to $80 dollar per barrel and the tariff should have been revised downward by 40 percent. Meanwhile, the tariff has been enhanced by more than 10 percent while the CNG tariff has been reduced in real terms,” he said.

Ahmad said the gas tariff hike would hamper country’s exports, with the value added sector of textile suffering heavily.

He further said the idea of imposing Gas Infrastructure Development Surcharge (GIDS) was also unacceptable.