The government is looking to amend the law against gas theft and recovery to set up gas utility courts and confer federal government powers to the prime minister to take action against gas theft and delay in consumer bill recovery.
Express Tribune reported that the government is planning to achieve this by amending the Gas (Theft Control and Recovery) Act 2016.
Under the amendments, the government may consult the relevant High Court through a notification in the official gazette and set up as many gas utility courts in a district as it deems necessary.
The government may appoint a judge to each gas utility court from the district and sessions judges in the district. District and sessions judges will include additional district and sessions judges as well.
Gas theft is rampant in the country, and the oil and gas regulator, OGRA, has allowed public utilities to recover the losses from the paying consumers. It has been reported that a few areas of Balochistan account for almost 40 percent of the gas theft in the country.
The previous government also tried to implement a similar mechanism but the amendments were not approved. Now, to curtail its heavy losses and protect honest consumers, the current government is planning to push through with this.
