ISLAMABAD
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has approved up to 45% hike in natural gas tariff for Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SNGCL) for the next fiscal year.
The new prices will take effect from the next fiscal year, which begins on July 01.
Ogra has allowed Rs266.58 per MMBtu, or 45%, increase for SNGPL which had sought a rise of 198% in its gas tariff.
The authority allowed SSGCL an increase of Rs308.53 per MMBtu, or 44%, against its demand of a 45% hike.
The gas tariff for SNGPL will go up from Rs854.52 per MMBtu to Rs1,121.1 and for SNGCL from Rs699.29 per MMBtu to Rs1,007.82.
An average household in Pakistan uses between one and two MMBtu every month and 45% increase in their gas bills may burden them with an additional Rs300 to Rs600 rupees. However, since the new sale prices would be determined category-wise it is unclear how much extra money residential consumers will be made to cough up.
Ogra approved the new hike in tariff while determining the “estimated revenue requirements” of the two gas companies, which supply natural gas to residential and commercial consumers across the country.
The authority has also said that for the SNGPL the financial impact of previous years’ shortfall of Rs264.894 billion has not been made part of the revenue determination and referred to the federal government.
According to Ogra estimates, the SNGPL lost Rs720.20 per MMBtu the previous year.
A day before Ogra handed down its decision, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) gave a nod to an Rs7.91 per kWh, or unit, increase in power tariff, which would also take effect in the next fiscal year, namely from July.
The PML-N-led government has also increased the price of petrol and diesel by Rs60 in less than a week.
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail Thursday evening told a news conference in Islamabad that the IMF had imposed “strict conditions” for the revival of the $6 billion loan program for the country and that the government would withdraw subsidies, though he was not going to reimpose petroleum development levy and general sales tax on petroleum products.
Earlier in May, Miftah Ismail said that Arab countries had also linked their financial assistance for Pakistan with the approval of the IMF loan tranche. “Saudi Arabia and other countries are all ready to give money, but all of them say we need to go to the IMF first,” he told a virtual conference on May 28, according to a Bloomberg report.
