Govt ordered to stop using Gas Infrastructure Development Cess funds for arbitration costs
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday directed the government to cease using funds from the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) to cover arbitration costs. The directive came after PAC discovered that funds meant for key gas infrastructure projects — including the Iran-Pakistan (IP) Pipeline, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Pipeline and LNG-related initiatives — were being diverted to legal and court expenditures instead. The committee was informed that the government had spent Rs955 million on the TAPI project and also covered arbitration costs with Iran using GIDC funds. The members expressed concern over the slow progress of gas infrastructure projects, which has led to the accumulation of Rs350 billion in unutilised GIDC funds.