Recent media reports stated that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has been supporting gas companies that are overcharging the masses for all the gas lost during distribution and theft. The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) said that this is the industry unfairly punishing the public for something that they have no control over.
Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President of PEW, stated on Wednesday in Karachi that the gas companies had previously been allowed to charge the public as much as 4.5 percent of the losses incurred due to theft and loss of distribution but now these companies want to double this to 9 percent to be able to gain more profit for distribution among their shareholders. And OGRA has allowed all this to happen.
He further added that the gas companies need to reduce internal corruption in their companies rather than charging the public for something that they have no control over. OGRA is submitting to the whims of the influential directors and stockbrokers of these companies rather than acting exclusively and in the interests of the public.
In fact OGRA, too, has been taken over by those who do not have the best interests of the public in mind but actually just the companies, whose values they have multiplied by five times in just a few months.
Besides, gas company officials have also been successful in managing to blackmail the government on issues of transmission and distribution which has to stop immediately.
Furthermore, the “enhanced ration of losses” will result in a gas price hike which could lead to inflation that will be detrimental to many parts of the economy. The country also suffers from a loss of almost 400 million cubic feet of gas everyday with the same amount being exported for billions of dollars.
via Pakistan Today
OGRA – Neend Se Jag Gayi ! Awam Ka Srif Khayal Aya Hai :
Karne Waly Kuch Nahi Hai Ye Bhi
Ye sub 1 he Thali k kutee hai jo awaam ki butiya baaant baant kr khatee hai …………
Thanks to highlight this one way of over charging, there are several other hidden overcharges are included in Gas bills which Ogra can stop easily, one of them is GCV – Gross calorific value which common customer can’t verify, it always have reference of SMS-sub metering station, these values are qouted same in the bill either that area is is very close to SMS or far from that SMS, equipments and instruments in SMS require regular third party calibration verification, calibration records are just fake in most of the cases, third party verifications all are nonverified by consumer point of view particularly domestic and commercial consumers, simialrly temperature and pressure values are also not accurate, for easy understanding if in winter you are getting only water vapours with no pressure at all just values for P.F will remains 1.1 and GCV also appearing in gas bills far beyond actual.
All these together giving a doubtful escalation of 4-5% to a Gas bill of a small customer.
I request any expert shall give his comments on it and will highlight in next article.
Where is Consumers Society in Pakistan? I have not seen any action on such issues. The innocent public pays quietly what is being billed by both Gas Company’s.Increasing UFG from 4.5 % to 9% shall surely affect our pockets and increase profit margins of both Gas Company’s.