ISLAMABAD - PML-N government is all set to promulgate an ordinance to nullify a Supreme Court’s verdict which suspended collection of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) worth Rs 145 billion in the current fiscal year, revealed Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Khaqan Abbasi in a meeting with print media journalists on Tuesday.
“Supreme Court has stopped us from collecting GIDC. We have appealed against the decision and if we would not get relief through court we would go to parliament and would pass a bill”, Abbasi said.
He said in the meantime an ordinance would be promulgated which would allow government to continue charging GIDC until it is not approved from court or Parliament.
The court recently termed GIDC illegal, and reportedly ordered the government to refund the amount collected on account of the cess to the consumers fully or through adjustment in their gas bills.
The government intends to collect Rs145 billion through GIDC in the budget 2014-15. In the fiscal 2012-13, the government collected Rs121 billion from this surcharge. Minister said this year government has collected Rs 84 billion so far.
This surcharge was imposed to finance infrastructure development for projects including Pak-Iran gas pipelines. But since most of these projects are stalled stakeholders have been demanding to eliminate this tax. Talking about the impact of GIDC, Abbasi said after the ordinance Rs.15.07 would be charged in region one and in region two Rs13.77 would be charged for every kg of CNG. He said industrial fertiliser and power sector would pay Rs. 200 mmbtu surcharge. It is pertinent to mention here that the government is already charging this amount and even after court verdict against the surcharge consumers are continuously paying this additional tax.  Answering a question regarding increase in LPG prices, he said his department was working to regulate the prices and Economic Coordination Committee would be contacted soon for the regulation of the fuel prices. Abbasi said this month under fuel charge adjustment petrol prices are likely to come down, however the decrease would be nominal due to weak rupee value against dollar.
Answering another question, he said that after the lifting of ban on new jobs, vacant positions in OGDCL would be filled under the testing system from NTS. Abbasi showed his helplessness in stopping the gas theft, which has reached 16 per cent of the total gas consumption of the country.
“We have no measure to check or stop gas theft as it need forensic investigation to check out the issue and until now we have no idea how much gas is actually stolen. All I can say is that there is pilferage, leakage and of course gas theft. Gas theft is said to be around 4 per cent whereas leakage and line losses are 6 percent. Yes, billions of rupees gas is stolen, but we need time, you should ask this question after at least one and a half years,” Abbasi said while answering questions regarding gas theft and what measures his department has taken to stop the theft.