Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) is planning to expand its load management plan to fertiliser and other industries, due to expected shortfall of 350 mmcfd per day during winter; a top SSGCL official said here on Saturday. While hosting a luncheon for media at a local hotel here, Zuhair Siddiqui, managing director SSGCL said they were expecting a shortfall of 350mmcfd per day in coming winter.
Therefore, the company is planning to shut gas supply to industries for 2 days and CNG sector for 3 days. Expansion of load management plan to fertiliser is also on the cards. He said the company was striving to manage this expected gas shortfall and they were going to add 25mmcfd from Balochistan by early November and some 35mmcfd gas was also being expected from Badin. Replying to a question, Zuhair said the issue related to arrears was not resolved with Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) however, the power utility was shelling out current bills. They have given a written assurance to pay Rs 1.2 billion per month, he added.
Moreover, he said gas tariff would be rationalised because of high subsidies to the domestic consumers and showed incognisance about the memorandum on Economic and Financial Policies for 2013/14-2015/16 forwarded to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “We don’t know about this memorandum but it is for sure that gas tariff will be revised.” He said gas theft was estimated at around 35-40 percent as several Goths on the outskirts of Karachi were using illegal connections and field officers were also being maltreated in case of any action against them.
