Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Secretary Ministry of Petroleum has submitted before the public accounts committee meeting that 65 LPG marketing companies had received LPG quota from OGDCL till the end of 2007 and now a signatory bonus system has been introduced in order to sell the product transparently. The Secretary petroleum also said that OGDCL is going to cancel its agreement with JJVL as its own LPG extraction plant has been completed.

Public accounts committee meeting was held at parliament house on Wednesday with the chair of its chairman Syed Khurshid Shah to discuss the audit paras of petroleum ministry financial year 2013-14, where massive financial irregularities worth billions of rupees has been unearthed. Managing Director OGDCL informed the committee that only two LPG marketing companies, Wak Gas, owned by senator Waqar, and Cap Gas, were getting LPG on quota basis from Kunnar oil field situated in Sindh Province. This is because the court has restrained the government from taking any adverse action against them. He said the government was pursuing the case against these two companies vigorously but the matter was still subjudice.

Auditor General informed the committee that government exchequer sustained a loss of Rs 1.21billion due to LPG quota system introduced by ministry of petroleum and suggested stringent action should be taken against those personalities who had benefited from quota system at the cost of public loss. The Audit report further divulged that OGDC had sold 4 LPG ton lots from Bobi oil complex, 26 lots from Kunnar and 10 lots from Adhi oil fields on quota basis from 2007 to 2012. As a result, the government had suffered a huge financial loss.

PAC members repeated asked petroleum ministry officials to submit the detail of the owners of the companies but their efforts were in vain as the official concerned kept quiet over it.

PAC expressed its annoyance with the petroleum ministry official for not taking punitive action against LPG marketing companies which are allegedly fleecing the consumers by increasing the price of LPG from Rs 50 to Rs 130 illegally. PAC has now directed the official concerned to deregulate the price of LPG so that the relief could be transferred to the public and added criminal proceedings should be advanced against companies which are breaching the laws.

Secretary Petroleum ,who faced wrath of PAC for failing to rein in LPG companies, told the committee that summary regarding the deregulation of LPG prices has been sent to the federal cabinet to ratify it and added after the approval, OGRA would regulate the prices and would take action against the companies violate government guidelines.

PAC was also informed that various international oil exploration companies have wrapped their luggage and stopped their drilling businesses due to the law and order situation of the country and consistent decline of oil prices in the international market.

Director general concession informed PAC that concession agreements with international oil companies for off shore drilling was cancelled as the company categorically declared that drilling in the off shore block is not viable due to the low price of oil in the market.

The auditor general told the committee that oil and gas exploration and production companies have not deposited their production bonus, lease rent, royalty and levy on sale of petroleum products worth of 10 billion rupees to the government and these companies got their stay order from the courts with the connivance of the officials concerned.

Public accounts committee has now formed a subcommittee headed by MNA Manan Mian to look into the issue of ghost employees of petroleum companies and the anomaly of law regarding the agreement with petroleum companies who are reluctant to spent the money on the areas where oil fields exist.