SC rejects plea to increase CNG prices, seeks tariff

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court (SC), while rejecting the plea to provide relief by increasing CNG prices, has sought details of the tariff accounts on Wednesday, Geo News reported.

A two-member bench of the SC headed by Justice Jawad S Khawaja, heard CNG pricing case.

In his remarks, Justice Khawaja said there is a cartel in the country and it appeared as if prices are fixed on its demands.

He further said business is done on the basis of profit, if it suits the businessmen they must carry on else they should shut it down. He further added that the court wants to scrutinize the issue as per law and does not care whether CNG stations are closed or phased out.

Counsel for Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), Salman Akram Raja appeared before court and informed there are 3395 CNG stations in the country.

On this, Justice Jawad asked for the CNG tariff and added the commodity could not be sold without license.

The court directed OGRA to submit its report by Thursday pertaining to records of existing filling stations operating without licenses, the number of requests the OGRA had received for CNG stations licenses, licenses issued by the regulatory authority and number of license requests rejected.

Later, the hearing was adjourned till tomorrow (Thursday).