By Adnan Rafique
ISLAMABAD: On one hand, the government has given an electric shock to the people by raising electricity prices, on the other, it has decided to introduce a new gas tariff system bringing a drastic hike in gas bills.
Sources divulged on Thursday that a new tariff system will be put in place on the Sui Northern Gas Company (SNGC) system by combining natural gas and LNG gas tariffs. It is suggested to raise the monthly bill of the utility for domestic consumers by a staggering Rs1,600.
Sources say it seems that the government is making a plan to deprive people of the facility of cheap natural gas. There are suggestions to increase the monthly bill of domestic consumers from Rs200 to Rs1,800. The government is planning to introduce a new tariff for natural gas consumers on the pattern of LNG tariff. And it has already started work on three suggestions regarding change of billing system. The government is working to link together the imported LNG tariff and natural gas tariff and come up with a new formula for billing.
The SNGC has 750mcf natural gas and it runs its system by adding 1,800mcf LNG. At present, the price of LNG is Rs2,623/MMBtu. Sources say that since the price of LNG has raised, the tariff for domestic consumers will also be hiked.
Before this, the domestic users have been billed on natural gas basis. The shortage of natural gas has compelled the government to bill the consumers while considering the price of LNG on a permanent basis.
