Gas price hike may result in misuse

A cabinet minister has feared misuse of 63% of cheaper industrial gas in power generation by factories, stating that owners of captive power plants (CPPs) may exploit any lacuna and can also try to seek stay orders from courts against price hike. Minister of State for Finance Ali Pervaiz Malik has urged the government to notify a transparent mechanism so that gas priced at Rs2,150 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) and meant for industries was not used in place of Rs3,500-per-mmBtu gas for CPPs. The current mechanism can facilitate this misuse. The development comes amid disclosure that in Sindh and Balochistan nearly 2,100 industrialists already have stay orders and they did not pay a whopping Rs172.5 billion on account of gas infrastructure development cess (GIDC), despite recovering it from consumers years ago, including from farmers.