ISLAMABAD: The Federal Government should have bought cargoes of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) earlier, to avoid the crisis prevailing in the country.
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, Shaukat Tarin while talking on a private television channel has admitted the flaw of the Government to buy LNG cargoes, due to which citizens remain troubled over gas outages in various cities across Pakistan.
Government was unable to buy gas cargoes in time as the purchasing time for it was over, Tarin said.
In another admission, Tarin said nobody knew about the international prices, which he said were quite high and that the government should have bought some cargoes earlier.
The premier’s aide revealed that Pakistan’s petroleum and gas imports have reached a staggering $20bn per year, which previously amounted to $12bn.
Tarin said Pakistan was paying $8-9bn more for petroleum and gas imports per year now. However, he said that market pundits were of the view that gas and petroleum products’ prices would come down by January or December when the coronavirus pandemic starts to decline in intensity.
Speaking on the shortage of gas, Tarin said Pakistani companies were supplying gas to consumers. He added that a couple of gas discoveries were made in Lakki Marwat, however, money was needed for the extraction process.
When asked about foreign gas companies, Tarin said they had left Pakistan and that the local companies were unable to extract gas as they did not have the required money and were facing liquidity issues.
Commenting on Pakistan’s circular debt, he said it is quite high right now.
Earlier this week, former finance minister Miftah Ismail lashed out at Energy Minister Hammad Azhar’s call for a debate with a journalist and asked government officials to ensure gas supply in the country instead of beating about the bush.
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