PESHAWAR - Due to low gas pressure and closure of supply from Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited, most of the Compressed Natural Gas stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained closed on Sunday causing multiple problems to consumers and transporters.
According to CNG station owners, the Supreme Court has already decided that no loadshedding would be allowed in the production zone where CNG stations are situated.
They said that despite the directives of the Supreme Court CNG supply remains suspended to stations.
Talking to TheNation, President of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CNG Association Fazal Muqeem said that though they have problems with OGRA regarding fixing of prices but this time they have closed their CNG stations due to cut of supply, as due to the change in climate, the CNG supply remained very low which forced them to closure.
When asked regarding recent OGRA formula, he said that they have no concern with prices but the government should decrease the tax, which would ultimately resolve the problems facing the CNG owners and transporters. He said that the CNG Association has also announced to stage protest rally from Peshawar Press Club to Kohat Road against the OGRA formula, closure of supply to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and low gas pressure.
A CNG station manager, Hamid Khan said that the owners are facing complete losses, as they are not getting appropriate profit due heavy burden of taxes and operating cost of CNG and electricity billing.
He said that government instead of reducing the rate, they should focus the main problem taxes due to which CNG stations have been pushed toward financial crunch.
Citing unavailability of CNG as a reason, transporters said that they withdrew the recent cut in fare due to losses.
They said that due to lack of CNG supply most of their vehicle has been converted to petrol and diesel due to which they have no rather to increase the fares.
In Peshawar, long queues of vehicles were seen all through the day at a few filling stations, which sold CNG. Due to low gas pressure and mounting chilly weather, gap widened between supply and demand which results problem both for the CNG owners and domestic consumers.
Meanwhile due to chilly weather domestic supply also remain low, causing multifarious problems for consumers.