Special Assistant to Prime Minister, Miftah Ismail, said on Tuesday that there will be no load-shedding of gas for domestic consumers and industrial sector during current winter season.
In an informal discussion with media at the Press Information Department, he said that about 1200 million cubic feet gas will be available in Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) system, whereas 1200 million cubic feet of imported liquefied natural gas from Qatar will also strengthen the local supply to fulfil the domestic energy demands.
He informed that the government had taken appropriate measures to bridge the demand-supply gap including the import of LNG from Qatar to produce the electricity on lowest cost as against the production of the electricity produced by furnace oil.
Miftah Ismail said that the initiative would also help the government overcome the electricity crisis and produce cheap energy for domestic and industrial consumption.
He further informed that imported LNG would help produce 30 percent cheaper and 50 percent extra electricity as compared to furnace oil.
Special Assistant to PM informed that the LNG deal with Qatar was completely transparent, which was negotiated by a high level committee comprising senior officials of different ministries including ministries of petroleum, water and power and finance.
He said the the deal was completely transparent, swift and cheapest, adding that after the negotiation the price was fixed at 13.7 cents of the brent, adding that countries including Japan and India was purchasing costly LNG at that time as compared to Pakistan.
Miftah Ismail said that the government was ready to share the details of LNG import deal with Qatar at any forum and anyone, adding that there was no terminal installed at a cost so low anywhere in the world.
He said that first LNG terminal was installed by Engro Company at Port Qasim, which had a capacity to supply about 960 million cubic feet, adding that government would install another LNG terminal which would be operational by November this year.
He said that two private sector companies are also interested in installing LNG terminals, besides construction of pipelines.
He said that under the government’s initiative to bridge the energy demand-supply gap, a pipeline form Karachi to Lahore was completed with a total cost of $1 billion to improve the gas supply and rationalizing the cost of electricity generation.
Work on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Pipeline (TAPI) was also in progress, which would enter in Pakistan from Balochistan Province and put a positive impact on the national economy and help in enhancing the industrial activities, he added.
Highlighting the performance of the government during last four years,he said that the first ever highest GDP growth rate has been achieved. Revenue collection recorded about 50 percent increase on year on year basis.
During the last fiscal year, revenue collection was recorded at Rs. 3,200 billion, whereas the government has set a revenue collection target of Rs 4,100 billion for the current fiscal year which will help the government increase its spending on social sector uplift.
Meanwhile, he said that during last four years the number of tax filers has reached 1.2 million and about 700,000 people had field their tax return.
However, he said that the revenue collection was not sufficient to fulfill the government spending on social sector development and curtailing the fiscal deficit, adding that the government was taking measures to check the tax bleeding and enhancing the performance of tax collecting authorities.
In order to control the growing current account deficit, the government has also imposed duties on the import of several goods to encourage the local industry as well as discouraging the imports of the luxury goods, he added.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister said that foreign exchange reserves of the country stood at over US$ 20 billion. Remittances have also witnessed a significant increase.
Via APP
@wahab chul beta khul ke geazur or heater chela or daba ke naha :)
Aur “BABAR SHAIR” par thapa laga…
abhe tuk bola nae first comment aise kerta hai jaise her article pe uska malkana haqooq hon
That means we can eat Siri Paye in winter!
Yay!!!
Gas to Ati hai Pressure Theek Kar Lo Bus : Illegal Connection Pe Generator Chalana Hota hai :D
In my opinion, the low pressure can still work, if people don’t resort to using (illegal and immoral) suction methods i.e. reworked refrigerator compressors. That works well for the person using it, but RUINS the pressure for beighbouring houses. At the end, everyone ‘must’ use it to be able to get gas, otherwise they don’t get anything but empty blows from your chulla …
bahe tu apne natuarl gas se pressure theek ker le chenee or mole kaya ker or gas ki paidwar barhaya ker :)
Vote jo lena hay.
there was no gas in my house yesterday evening located in DHA Lahore
Hahaha even winter season hasn’t set in yet but still we have low pressure issue in my area mostly between 10 am to 12 pm in the morning.
Never believe what Pakistani politicians tell you.
All of them have been following Machiavelian political tactics since day one.