KARACHI – The caretaker government has announced whopping increase of up to 67 percent in prices of natural gas for domestic consumers, with effect from February 1, 2024.
Increasing the gas prices was one of tough conditions laid forth by the International Monetary Fund for the $3 billion bailout package as the South Asian country is making efforts to tackle the economic crisis.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has issued a notification regarding the gas tariff hike. The caretaker setup last jacked up the tariff in November 2023.
The gas price for protected consumers using up to 0.25 cubic hectometers (hm3) and up to 0.9 hm3 has been increased to Rs200 from Rs121 and Rs350 from Rs300, respectively, It makes 40 percent and 67 percent surge in price for the protected consumers.
The price for non-protected customers consuming up to 0.25 hm3 to above 4 hm3 have been increased to Rs500 to Rs4,200.
The rates for the commercial category have also been jacked up. It has been increased by 2 percent from Rs3,900 per metric million British thermal unit (mmBtu) to Rs3,990 per mmBtu, while for general industries the price has been reduced by 2 percent from Rs2,200 to Rs2,150 mmBtu.
The rates for export-oriented processing industries saw a two percent increase with new price fixing at Rs2,150 per mmBtu.
The caretaker government has also jacked up the prices between 175 percent to 714.8 percent for fertilizer companies that use gas as feed-stock.
The increase in gas prices would further intensify inflation in the country where purchasing power of common citizens has already shrunk.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/16-Feb-2024/petrol-price-in-pakistan-increased-once-again
