ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said that the government has decided to increase gas tariff by five to six per cent from next month, however, the domestic consumers would be exempted from this hike.
He said while giving a briefing to the media on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (Tapi) gas pipeline project.
The minister said that the groundbreaking of the multi-billion dollar project was expected to be held on Dec 25 and the 1,800-kilometre pipeline would be completed in three to four years. He said the transit fee would be paid to Afghanistan by India, and not Pakistan.
Abbasi said that natural gas from Turkmenistan would be quite expensive for India because it would have to pay the transit fee to both Pakistan and Afghanistan and Afghanistan would be the net beneficiary, earning $500 to $600 million on account of royalty and meet its energy requirements for at least 10 years out of its share from the pipeline. He said the pipeline would move along highways already built in Afghanistan and a special security system would be installed that would flag alarm before any incident.
