APCNGA expresses reservations over CNG audit report

Islamabad: The All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) on Wednesday expressed reservations on forensic audit report of the CNG stations terming it flawed.

In a letter sent to Chairman OGRA regarding audit of production cost of the CNG filling stations on the directives of Supreme Court, the APCNGA said that audit teams have neglected some critical issues which has left the report incomplete. The quality of gas provided to CNG outlets has remained very important factor in terms of rate, price and billing but unfortunately this factor has been neglected during the audit, said Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha, Chairman Supreme Council APCNGA in a statement.

Variation in quality of natural gas results in dissimilar billing in different locations of the country resulting in losses, he added. He said that 90 per cent of the CNG stations are facing low pressure which is another major concern for the sector. The excessive cost of gas and electricity bills due to low pressure should have been taken into consideration in the audit report recommendations.

Paracha informed that most of the CNG stations are installed on petrol pumps where the owners have to pay 10 to 20 per cent margin to oil marketing companies which hikes cost of doing business, a factor conveniently overlooked in the audit.

Prices of gas provided to CNG stations should be uniform and government should sell gas at kilograms rates, he demanded. Over 2300 CNG stations remain closed for twelve days every month due to gas load shedding causing colossal losses. Only eighteen working days marred with unscheduled load shedding is an additional burden faced by the CNG sector, said Paracha.