LAHORE: Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) dealers in Punjab announced on Saturday that they would increase the fuel price by up to Rs3 per kilogramme, citing an increase in dollar price as the reason behind the decision.
With the move, the price of RLNG based CNG has increased from Rs79.90 to Rs82.79 in the province, according to media.
Chairman of All Pakistan CNG Association’s (APCNGA) Punjab chapter, Capt. (r) Shuja Anwar said that decision was taken following an increase of Rs7 in dollar price in the past few days. “CNG price is directly connected to dollar’s price hence an increase is inevitable,” he explained.
Punjab imports Re-Gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) for the production of CNG whereas other provinces use locally produced natural gas for the same.
The move came a day after the rupee hit a new all-time low of 149.35 to the US dollar in the interbank market.
Hours after the development, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) sent a summary to the government to increase gas price by 47 per cent in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and by 28 per cent in Sindh and Balochistan from the next fiscal year (July 1, 2019) due to the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has already hiked the gas prices up to 143 per cent during the ongoing fiscal year.
