The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources approved the deregulation of prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), following which the station owners will be free to set their own prices. The ministry has already issued a notice to CNG owners stating that prices are no longer regulated by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), and the CNG station owners are free to decide and set their own prices. The Ministry of Petroleum will make necessary amendments to the OGRA Ordinance to implement this decision. It will retain control over the pricing of petrol and all matters pertaining to taxation. A notification was issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources in this regard. Following the decision, CNG will be sold in litres in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, rather than in kilogrammes. The pricing of CNG had already been deregulated in Punjab.Chairman of the Supreme Council of All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA), Ghiyas Paracha said, “The government decision will give the dying sector a new lease on life. He said it will help Rs 450 billion industry survive, which during the past six years faced serious gas loadshedding which resulted in closure of hundreds of CNG stations, especially in Punjab. Now, after the deregulation of CNG prices, APCNGA will fix the fuel prices for the end consumers as per market situation and will have no connection with the government or OGRA. Paracha maintained that station owners at present are selling the commodity at loss. This is probably due to the use of LNG, instead of natural gas. According to the chairman, the price increase will be minimal so that CNG rates still remain below that of petrol prices in the country. From now onwards the owners of about 2.5 million vehicles in the country running on compressed natural gas will be completely at the mercy of market forces It is true that CNG sector has been facing serious problems especially frequent disruption of gas supplies which hurt investment and businesses of thousands of people besides creating difficulties for consumers. One might not doubt intention of CNG Association when it committed to provide better and interrupted service to CNG vehicle owners but there are genuine fears about steep rise in prices and fleecing the people. This has been happening in the case of LPG for the last several years when the mafia in the sector manipulates things in its favour and raises prices every now and then without any justification. Deregulating a commodity without any control or regulatory authority is sheer injustice with end consumers. In a democratic government, decisions of this sort that involve public interest cannot be imposed unilaterally. Government needs to abstain from demonstrating aristocratic attitude in public affairs. The country has already been reeling under the energy crisis. The non-availability of CNG in winter makes it a bad choice to convert fueling mechanism of vehicles on this fuel. It would be easy for CNG business owners to raise prices on the pretext of gas crisis in winter. Therefore, a proper regulatory system is necessary for regulating this sector. The decision-making forums should give public interest more priority while taking such important decisions.
