Former President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Dr. Shahid Rasheed Butt on Wednesday said that the government is buying expensive gas and selling it to the manufacturers at cheap prices which is wrong.
The loss is recovered from masses who are already paying full price for the gas and they also facing loadshedding, he said.
Shahid Rasheed Butt said that seventeen billion dollars worth of LNG was provided to influential manufacturers for nine billion dollars which is against the national interests and this practice should be stopped immediately.
He said that if the industrial sector wants cheap gas, they should build their own LNG terminal and import the gas themselves at competitive rates without any red tape.
State-run gas companies and influential oil mafia are not in favor of the LNG project therefore the private sector is not allowed to import cheap LNG, he said, adding that the purchase of LNG at record prices during the previous regime should be investigated.
He said that transparency should be ensured in all gas-related issues so that the sector can come out of revolving debt and stand on its own feet.
He said that the prices of LPG cylinders are skyrocketing and with the change of weather, profiteering has gone rampant.
Shahid Rashid Butt said that Pakistan’s oil mafia is very influential and bent on destroying the LNG project, while the state-owned gas companies are afraid of private sector participation in the sector as it will affect their monopoly and gas will become cheaper.
He said that when India and European countries are buying cheap oil and gas from Russia, why is Pakistan not doing the same?
He said that after the war between Russia and Ukraine, the interest rates hike in America and now OPEC’s decision to cut production will damage the poor countries.
