National News
Government to levy gas surcharge
Posted on: Wed September 28, 2011
National Highlights
ISLAMABAD (Online) - Minister for Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain has said the government has decided to levy gas surcharge which will be enforced following the approval from cabinet.
He told the National Assembly (NA) standing committee on petroleum and natural gas that met here on Tuesday under its chairman Talib Hassan Nakai.
The ministry of petroleum officials gave briefing to the committee regarding ongoing gas crisis in the country.
Dr Asim Hussain told the committee that the ministry of petroleum would unveil new gas policy within the next two months. New policy envisages 14 years imprisonment for gas thieves. This policy will be presented in the NA session commencing from October 3.
He said the imposition of levy on LPG would accrue revenue of Rs 5 billion. Only the distributors would bear the burden of this levy, he pointed out.
Increasing trend in value of dollar is a matter of grave concern for us as it will lead to scale up the prices of petroleum products, he stated.
He indicated that gas would be supplied to Punjab through LPG from 2012 and gas pipeline would be laid from Karachi to Lahore in this respect.
Irfan Khokhar, LPG Distributor Association Chairman, said that ex-generals - Lt Gen (r) Hussain-ud-Din Haider, Lt Gen (r) Khalid Maqbool and Lt Gen (r) Munir Hafiz - looted the people during the last seven years by grabbing Rs 350 billion.
Courtesy: Nation