Consumers should prepare for inflated winter bills as gas prices are predicted to climb once more. In order to reach a bailout agreement with the IMF, the government raised petrol costs by up to 113 percent for certain consumer categories in February for a period of six months. This time, it is anticipated that petrol prices will increase by 50 percent nationwide in order to satisfy one of the primary requirements of the short-term IMF loan facility authorised in July. The hike in petrol prices will be particularly difficult for consumers who are still dealing with high electricity bills from August. But as the temporary ministers explained to the media during a news conference on Friday, the hike in petrol prices before the winter was unavoidable toThe debt in the gas industry has already accumulated to Rs2.7 trillion, including interest, surpassing the chain’s debt of Rs2.4 trillion in the power sector. The situation is undoubtedly quite concerning, and hiking the tariffs is the only option if we want to limit the accumulation of debt and discourage people from using gas for heating during the winter.
Periodic price increases, however, are not a solution to the nation’s gas problems, as we have seen in the case of electricity. Given that we are rapidly depleting the domestic resource by its wasteful and inefficient usage, the government needs to move beyond periodic changes of gasoline prices to ensure the long-term sustainability of the petrol sector. The cost of petrol ought to be determined by the world market. Low-income residential and small-scale industrial consumers would find it difficult to accept it, but they will do so as long as the two gas companies also implement effective measures to lower their significant system losses and combat widespread gas theft to lessen the burden on consumers who pay their bills. According to the army chief’s directives, gas utilities in Punjab and KP have started a crackdown on fuel theft and have detained several suspects. The size of the steal indicates that without assistance from the utility employees, such an activity will not produce the desired consequence. When pressure is released on gas thieves after a few weeks, the question is whether the gas authorities will continue their campaign against them.
