ISLAMABAD - In a bid to control swelling gas crisis of the country, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) sector has now

expressed its willingness to bring Liquefied Na tural Gas (LNG) to meet the growing demands and also gave conditional consent to increase the price of commodity by 17 per cent of petrol s. These revelations were made during a seminar organised by All Pakistan CNG Assoc iation (APCNGA), which was held here on Monday in a hotel to discuss in details the ways and measures to control ongoing gas crisis of the country. Representati ves of CNG industry, officials of petroleum and natural resources ministry were in attendance along with people of different walks of life. The CNG association while expressing her readiness to bring imported LNG to coun try has also shown its conditional support to link the price of CNG with petrol price to meet the increasing demands of natural gas. Minister for petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi while speaking on the occasion said that CNG is useful for the country and luckily half of the country s vehicles are running on CNG fuel. However, solution to problems of the CNG sector pertain to provision of uninterrupted gas is only the imported gas. S imilarly, LNG import can resolve gas crisis of the country as national exchequer is facing $2million annual loss due to absence of import of LNG. Highlighting the shortage of natural gas to meet the burgeoning demands of natur al gas of various categories of natural gas consumers, petroleum minister said, W e can lit our stoves only with locally produced gas as country is faced with acu te gas shortage. He also said that country s gas crisis has become so intensified t hat today local production can only satisfy the demands of domestic consumers an d after lighting domestic stove no gas is left to meet the demands of rest of an y single consumers. Due to courts and media, today no body seems ready to take a decision pertain to import of LNG to the country, he said, adding, Undue delay in the import of LNG has caused unbearable damages to the country s economy, which h as now reached at the verge of devastation. During the course of speech, Shahid tried his level best to satisfy the CNG sect or that the incumbent regime is not against the CNG sector by saying that the PM L-N government would give more incentives to the CNG industry and is set to incr ease the volume of business with the CNG sector. Expressing his opinion with regard to natural gas import projects, the minister for petroleum and natural gas Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Iran-Pakistan gas pipeli ne project would not affect the CNG sector and Iranian gas is cheaper in compari son with the price of imported LNG. He, however, deplored over a report of an or ganisation that has declared the IP gasline project a reason to devastate countr y s economy and said, Sincerity of such people with our beloved homeland is in doub ts. He also said that price of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) ga s project would be $1 cheaper than to IP gas price. Speaking on the occasion Chairman APCNGA Ghiyab Abdullah Paracha announced that CNG sector is ready to import LNG to the country to meet soaring gas demands of CNG sector. He said the entire CNG sector would find uninterrupted natural gas w ith 400mmcfd-imported LNG and there would be no gas holiday or suspension on any single day of a week. He, however, demanded of the government to bring imported LNG to the country for CNG sector use by giving an exemption from general sales tax (GST) to the imported LNG and a CNG policy as well to run the entire sector smoothly. Dispelling the impression that CNG sector is allegedly involve in gas theft, Ghi yas Paracaha said that the government should appoint police on CNG filling stati ons while gas theft is going on only because of alleged connivance of the offici als of gas utilities. He also said that the CNG is an alternate fuel for approxi mately 3.5 vehicles usually run on petrol or diesel. So far, above 4.5 billion investment has been made in country s CNG sector by the investors, he added. Ghiyas has bitterly criticised the measures and ways taken by the outgoing PPP-l ed coalition government to run the CNG industry and also said, Today country is f acing acute financial and social crisis only due to the wrong policies of previo us regime. Besides, Parcaha has also expressed concerns over Rs4/kg increase in g as price due to hike in the power tariff, which, the oil and gas regulatory auth ority (Ogra) had, however, not allowed them to collect it from the CNG consumers