The government has decided that Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) will procure gas meters from the local manufacturing plant of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL).
According to a report, the issue of SSGCL’s gas meter manufacturing facility was raised in a high-level meeting of a cabinet committee headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan last month.
Annually, SNGPL installs around 3 million imported gas meters worth billions of rupees. The decision to locally procure the meters will also cut down the expenses of the company. One of the cabinet members raised the issue of faulty gas meters as they were being imported by SNGPL.
Previously, the Petroleum Division approached the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to allow SNGPL to procure gas meters from the manufacturing plant of SSGCL without a bidding process to curb losses.
The report said that SSGCL’s revenue from its meter manufacturing plant stood at Rs. 537 million in the financial year 2012-13 but it turned into a loss of Rs. 2 million in FY 2016-17 and Rs. 57 million in 2017-18.
The sources maintained that the Petroleum Division approached ECC and sought a waiver of PPRA rules to allow SNGPL to procure locally manufactured gas meters directly from SSGCL.
It is pertinent to mention that SSGCL has reported a decline and loss for its meter manufacturing plant which is attributed to less or no exports of meters and change in policy with respect to direct procurement between SSGCL and SNGPL.
SSGC’s manufacturing facility was established with the assistance of M/S Itron France. The plant has meter manufacturing and production capacity of one million meters per annum. The plant is producing meters with foreign and local industry assistance and has been improved based on international standards and Pakistan-specific requirements of SNGPL to encounter UFG issues related to tampering.
