Closure of the CNG filling stations countrywide on Wednesday to be continued indefinitely, already when the gas shortage has been crippling, is a highly questionable tactic that the All Pakistan CNG Association has adopted to ask for acceptance of its demands. The association also threatens to shut down the petrol pumps under its control. It seems that it is pressing the government to take back the newly proposed cess. That doesn’t call for a protest on such a huge scale and that too indefinitely. The tax is part of the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess settled in the Finance Bill 2011, which dispels the impression that the sector is being victimised.
The CNG association is well within its right to negotiate with the government but it should not take the law in its own hand by either becoming a cartel or forcing the traffic across the country to a grinding halt and causing colossal loss to the economy. Being the suppliers of the CNG to the country they hold a position of trust which they must not exploit as a bargaining chip because it has some issue to settle with the government. One of the office bearers of the APCNGA has levelled the charge that the proposed taxation is meant to destroy the CNG sector and instead promote businessmen dealing in Liquefied Petroleum Gas. While their concern must not be ignored, they must realise that being a part of economy, taxes are a reality that cannot be wished away. The crisis must be resolved quickly. It is in the country’s interest.