KARACHI: Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders (ICST) on Sunday lauded the decision of the government to speed up work Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project to import natural gas from Turkmenistan. ICST Patron Shahid Rasheed Butt in a statement said, “Natural gas has emerged as the most important fuel and Pakistan’s future is also linked to the gas therefore the decision to expedite TAPI project is laudable.” He said that gas has become the cheapest source for power generation, overtaking all other processes therefore dozens of nations are converting their power plants to gas. Shahid Rasheed Butt said that the import of gas from Iran is not possible while local production is stagnant since last fifteen years. He said that the number of LNG terminals and regasification plants are being increased which is commendable. Deregulation of CNG prices is a very wise decision of the government which will revive CNG industry and the CNG business can become viable when the price difference with petrol is twenty percent. The ICST patron added, “We unconditionally support the initiatives of the government to increase the percentage of gas in the national energy mix.” He noted that proposal of independent consultants to hike gas tariff by five percent to cover UFG losses will hit masses and the business community. Butt further said, “The current UFG losses of SSGCL stood at 13 percent while SNGPL’s losses were at 15 percent. This is in contrast to losses being reported by the gas utilities. Gas companies should be asked to paint real picture of the losses.”