ISLAMABAD: Hours after unleashing a tax-loaded ‘mini-budget’, the federal government late Wednesday night jacked up the prices of petrol and gas to a historic high in a bid to appease the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for unlocking the critical loan tranche.
After finding an advice from the Petroleum Division, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) notified a gas sale price hike from 16 to 113 pc for categories of gas consumers of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited.
According to OGRA, the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) on Wednesday (15th February 2023) communicated the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee, ratified by the Federal Cabinet, in respect of gas sale price, effective January 01, 2023. And, OGRA, after receipt of the said advice, has notified the sale prices against each category of retail consumers of natural gas. The said notification is available at OGRA’s official website.
As per details, domestic category of gas consumers who use 100 cubic meters of gas will face 16.6% hike in the gas price as the new price of gas for such gas consumers has been fixed at Rs 350 per Million British Thermal Unit while previously they were paying Rs 300/MMBTU for using 100 cubic meters of gas in a month.
Similarly, gas price for the domestic gas consumers who use 200 cubic meters of gas has been jacked up by 32% and the new gas price for those domestic consumers has been set at Rs 730/MMBTU while previously they were paying Rs 553/MMBTU for using 200 cubic meters of gas.
Likewise, gas price for domestic gas consumers who use 300 cubic meters of gas has been increased by 69pc as the new gas price for those gas consumers has been fixed at Rs 1250/MMBTU while previously they were paying Rs 738/MMBTU for using 300 cubic meters of gas. For gas consumers who use 400 cubic meters of gas, the gas price increase is 99pc as the gas price for those consumers has been fixed at Rs 2200/MMBTU while previously they were paying Rs 1107/MMBTU for using 400 cubic meters of gas.
Furthermore, gas consumers who use more than 400 cubic meters of gas, the gas price hike is 124pc as the gas price for such consumers has been set at Rs 3277/MMBTU while previously they were paying Rs 1460/MMBTU for using 400 cubic meters of gas.
Gas price for commercial gas consumers has been jacked up by 28.6pc as their gas price has been increased from Rs 1283 to Rs 1650/MMBTU. For the power sector, the gas price has been increased by 22.8pc and the new price for the power sector has been fixed at Rs 1050/MMBTU while previously this sector was paying Rs 857/MMBTU.
For the export sector, gas price has been increased by 34pc as the gas price for this sector has been increased from Rs 819/MMBTU to Rs 1100/MMBTU. The gas price for the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) sector has been increased by 31pc as the gas price for the CNG sector has been increased from 1370/MMBTU to Rs 1800/MMBTU.
For the fertilizer sector, the gas price has been increased by 46pc as the new gas price has been fixed at Rs 1500/MMBTU while previously this sector was paying Rs 1023/MMBTU.
Gas price for the cement sector has been increased by 17.46pc as the new gas price for this sector has been increased from Rs 1277 to Rs 1500/MMBTU.
It is pertinent to mention that this new massive gas price hike will be applicable from 1st January to 30th June 2023 while collection of Rs 50 per month from the protected category of domestic gas consumers while Rs 500/month from the non-protected domestic gas consumers has been notified by the OGRA.
According to sources, due to the gigantic gas price hike, Rs 310 billion will be collected in six months. However, this decision of gas price hike will not be applicable to the domestic consumers who use 50 cubic meters of gas.
