PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court (PHC) bench stopped the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Company (SNGPL) from suspending gas supply to three different textile mills for not paying the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC).
The order was issued by a two-member bench comprising Justice Shakeel Ahmed and Justice Syed Arshad Ali while hearing a petition filed by Kohat Textile Mills and Saif Textiles etc. which then directed the SNGPL to submit response to the case before the next hearing of the case.
During the hearing, counsels for the petitioners told the court that the federal government and SNGPL have notified the mills that the gas supply will be stopped if the GIDC arrears weren’t paid.
The lawyers said that the GIDC arrears are to be received under the GIDC Act 2015 but there are ambiguities in the Act as to how these arrears will be collected. “The rules are yet to be made under the Act. Thus gas supply cannot be cut off till the rules are formulated,” The petitioners argued.
The petitioners argued that industries in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are already affected by a long spell of militancy and such actions will further discourage the investors. Therefore, SNGPL authorities should be restrained from cutting off the gas supply and the arrears should not be collected till the rules are made under the GIDC Rules Act-2015.
The court stayed action against the said textile and sought response from the federal government, oil and gas regulatory authority, and SNGPL before adjourning the hearing.
