Gas bills across the country have been so high this month that most consumers are thinking of disconnecting their gas connections, more of salaried professionals and low-income consumers have started using liquid gas.
This is the reason why the prices of cylinders made of fiber class in the market have increased by 50% during Ramadan. Earlier the 12 kg empty cylinder was available for 7 thousand rupees now it is sold for 12 thousand rupees.
Similarly the prices of iron cylinders have also increased. The main reason is that the citizens are no longer able to pay the most expensive natural gas bills provided at the government level. In the last one year the price of gas has increased by 600% and by the time their line is published, a decision will have been taken regarding making gas more expensive. For which the meeting was to be held yesterday.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority had requested Sui Northern Gas to increase the price of gas by 155%. Preparations are being made to loosen the pockets of the people who are suffering from inflation due to the increase in the prices of natural gas day by day.
There is a possibility that gas will have become more expensive by hundreds of percent by the time the last installment of the IMF review is released. A year ago, the gas bill of a customer whose bill was 100 rupees has become 600 rupees and now the bill of 600 rupees will be 1500.
If Ogra approves the rate increase it will be applied from 1st July. On that the protest has been recorded by the traders of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On the other hand Lahore Chamber and Aptma have termed the further increase in gas tariff as cruelty and said that it will be strongly opposed during the hearing.
According to the sources Sui Northern Gas Company has proposed a price of Rs 4 thousand and 489 rupees. The increase in gas prices will increase the bills by an average of 155%. Sources say that the price of gas has already increased by 600% in a year and is likely to double.
Consumers are inevitably attracted to alternatives. In most of the districts of the province, including the provincial capital Peshawar the consumers are disconnecting the gas connection and using liquid gas or burnt wood in the villages.
If the situation continues to deteriorate like this, the popularity of the government will decrease further in the coming months as people will consider it as a continuation of the former PDM government. It is also a fact that the present Shehbaz government has claimed that they have not stolen any mandate but the people have elected them.
Therefore, the responsibilities on the rulers have increased to bring ease in the lives of their citizens. If inflation continues to rise like this and gas prices continue to rise, this situation will make the government more unpopular.
Now it is the responsibility of the Federal Energy Minister to come up with such a policy with the help of his team that can compensate the extra bills received from the people in different periods. During the last one decade, this cruelty has been done to the people, first they were bankrupted by selling expensive gas to them and then they were charged fines for not paying extra bills and their connections were also cut off.
This situation is also with the electricity bills, where bills are being sent for up to two hundred units on disconnected meters. The political parties of Prime Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif and his ally President Asif Ali Zardari should think about this situation, whose chief ministers are still seen standing on precious carpets and taking pictures while planting the plants. However, they are wasting the national treasury on VVIP protocols, which is an injustice to this poor nation.
