ISLAMABAD - Parliamentarians on Saturday seconded the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA)'s proposal to reduce oil prices by 7 per cent due to recent slump in the crude oil prices in the international market. The OGRA Chairman Munir Ahmad told the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources that OGRA had forwarded a proposal to the government suggesting to reduce the prices of the petroleum products. The Senate body also agreed to the downward revision in oil prices after decrease in futures market, a place where futures' oil contracts are traded. "However, the benefit could not be passed on to the consumers immediately as the government is adjusting the Petroleum Development Charges (PDC) after which the public is expected to have the benefit of the downward revision of the oil prices," OGRA Chairman informed the Senate body. The committee also asked the government to empower OGRA for determining gas prices to avoid repetition in future of the fiasco occurred recently during Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) prices. The committee, which met at the Parliament House, strongly recommended to the government to let OGRA fix CNG and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) prices. "In the aftermath of the CNG price increase by the government in first week of July 2008, whereby the public was robbed of millions of rupees by the clever market manipulators in a couple of days," it was noted. The meeting, which was presided over by Senator Syed Dilawar Abbas, directed the Ministry of Petroleum to monitor the LPG situation as similar situation could brew in winter gain. It also recommended that the demand-supply gap in the LPG sector should be bridged through imports so that consumer's interest could be protected. The Senate body further instructed the OGDC to make two other gas fields expeditiously, which have been facing problems for some time, to overcome the shortage. It also instructed the Corporation to intensify efforts for increasing the domestic production of oil and gas by gearing up the exploratory activities. The Committee asked OGRA to carefully work out the overheads and other allied expenditures of the CNG stations to determine precisely the extent of profit they are making as the SNGPL and SSGPL are providing gas to these stations at a much lower price, which is SNGPL's Rs 22.16 per kg and SSGPL's Rs 20.35 per kg respectively inclusive of sales tax. The Committee noted with concern that the people are getting CNG at more than double of this cost. The of Members of the Committee urged the ministry of petroleum and natural resources to expedite commissioning of more CNG stations for Balochistan, which is providing gas to whole of the country but surprisingly has only four CNG stations all over the province. It further instructed OGRA to expedite processing the remaining 27 applications for setting up the stations as people are facing a lot of hardships in this regard. The Chairman OGRA clarified that the caretaker government imposed a ban on new CNG stations as a result of which the cases of the remaining applicants of Balochistan could not be processed. The Committee recommended immediate lifting of the ban so that the province of Balochistan could get its due share of CNG stations. The Managing Director SNGPL informed the meeting that a new gas pipeline is being laid for Quetta city to overcome shortages, which would be operational by November this year. He also apprised the committee of the measures being contemplated for overcoming gas shortage, which included standardisation of appliances and their manufacturing according to PEC specifications. It was pointed out that a proposal has been prepared to phase out the old (traditional) geysers, which consume a lot of gas and their replacement with new ones which are gas efficient. Public, he said, would be given the choice to the replace their existing geysers at home without any additional cost and the price would be recovered or adjusted in the monthly gas bills. He said that an awareness campaign is also being launched to economise the use of gas and to reduce the monthly gas bills. The committee also took serious exception to the CNG fiasco and asked the ministry of petroleum to proceed against those responsible for the faux pas, which caused great embarrassment for the govt and to avoid their recurrence at all costs. It also called for strict monitoring and regulating the major players in the CNG and LPG markets so that they may not be able to manipulate it to their own advantage especially in coming winter and to exploit the general public. Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti drewn the attention of the Chair towards the issue of reinstatement of PPL workers sacked in 2006. He said that they could not join duty due to the situation arising out of the tribal feuds. The Committee recommended their reinstatement as nearly all of them belong to middle and lower classes and they have been suffering owing to circumstances beyond their control. The Senators who attended the meeting were Mir Muhammad Naseer Mengal, Bibi Yasmeen Shah, Mir Mohabat Khan Marri, Mrs Rukhsana Zuberi, Dr Muhammad Ismail Buledi and Shahid Hassan Bugti.