LAHORE: LPG Association of Pakistan (LPGAP) has given a wakeup call to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDC) and other departments to stop the import of cheap and substandard LPG which is not only damaging the local LPG industry but is also one of the major reasons of swelling trade deficit.
In a statement issued here, Chairman LPG Association of Pakistan Farooq Iftikhar said that high prices of LPG products have allowed smugglers and importers of sub-standard spurious to play freely.
He said that locally produced LPG can cater to most of the domestic needs but high prices are coming in the way and encouraging high importers as well as smuggling. He said that Pakistan recorded a historically of high trade deficit of $33.4 billion in April 2017 that calls to control undue imports like LPG.
Chairman LPGAP further stated that OGDCL & other producer prices are far above prevailing CP price and that contributed incursion of cheap imported LPG creating enormous problems for local producers as well as LPG Marketing Companies. He said that LPG internationally these days is selling approximately 60-100 US$ below CP as the consumption during summer not only falls in Pakistan but internationally as well.
Farooq Iftikhar emphasized the urgency in bringing down the price to discourage sub-standard imports and enable LPG Marketing & Storage companies to lift their allocation regularly. He said that the present situation has put enormous pressure on all local producers like MOL, PPL & others besides OGDCL as such it is requested the local producers should not fall prey to importer ploy of sending offer to lift all surplus stock of local producers. He said that this offer is being done purely to distract local producers from the current situation.
He said that ongoing situation demands immediate attention of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources, Oil & Gas Development Company and other concerned departments as investment of billions and employment of millions is at stake.
