LAHORE: The Liquefied Petroleum Gas Association of Pakistan (LPGAP) on Wednesday demanded from concerned authorities to formulate a consistent policy regarding pricing of local LPG and to discourage undue advantages to its importers.
At an urgent meeting here, LPGAP Chairman Farooq Iftikhar said that low quality imported Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) was being sold out at cheaper rates, which caused heavy losses to LPG marketing companies selling good quality local LPG, citing that presently, there was a price difference of Rs10,000 per MT between indigenous LPG and low quality imported LPG.
He claimed that marketing companies selling locally produced LPG were not even recovering their basic costs and it was getting difficult for them to continue their business. Currently, he added, over 155 LPG marketing companies were operating in Pakistan and around 40-50 having local allocation were bound to lift their allocation even if they had to sell below landed cost and bear huge losses. Local LPG industry that was instrumental in selling environment-friendly fuel was also solely responsible in bringing down the massive trade deficit, a big economic challenge presently but the MP and NR policy on LPG was supporting importers only, he argued.
Farooq Iftikhar said that low priced inferior quality LPG was flooding local markets by way of misdeclaration of quantity smuggled through land routes by evading taxes, he said.
The LPGAP chairman said that auto sector and the industry, which were previously using LPG was now shifting back to CNG because of availability of LNG and natural gas to them in adequate quantity and at lesser prices. Furthermore, due to global warming and changes in climatic conditions coupled with increased availability of natural and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), he mentioned, the demand of LPG had reduced considerably.
