03 November 2021: Chairman Pakistan Economy Watch Brig. (retd) Muhammad Aslam Khan on Wednesday said the price of LPG has gone up by 70% in the last one year which is affecting the people.
The government should take steps to reduce the cost of this important fuel on which millions of people depend otherwise the onset of winter will add to the miseries of the masses, he said.
Aslam Khan said that the incompetence of the bureaucracy has forced the government to buy the most expensive LNG and now international LNG suppliers have started defaulting, which has increased the importance of LPG and price of LPG is increasing.
He said in a statement issued here that international LNG suppliers would have to pay a 30 per cent penalty in case of default but they would sell the same gas to other countries at three times the price which will benefit them by millions of dollars.
He added that many international companies want to set up LNG terminals in Pakistan in collaboration with local partners but the bureaucracy is constantly harassing them which should be noticed.
Qatar Energy wants to set up the country’s largest private LNG terminal in Pakistan with the help of local partners which will allow consumers to get cheaper LNG as the government will have no role in it but bureaucracy is wasting the time of investors.
The foreign and local sponsors of two upcoming LNG terminals have complained to the prime minister that their projects are facing roadblocks despite approval by all institutional forums and they may not be able to go ahead with their investment plans in the prevailing conditions.
It is not the first case in which investors have complained that bureaucratic ways are warding them away but unfortunately strict actions have not been taken against such elements which have encouraged them while discouraging the foreign and local investors, he observed.
