SNGPL to refund Rs513mn to gas consumers over low pressure

The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Saturday announced that it will refund Rs513 million to its consumers in cases where the site pressure was lower than the billing pressure.

According to a notification, the SNGPL’s board of directors, on the advice of Prime Minister Imran Khan and after critically examining the matter, “has directed the management to arrange physical cross-checking of actual delivery pressure and in this respect, cases are being identified where the current site pressure is less than the billing pressure.”

The measure comes after fluctuating gas pressure “due to different technical parameters, including supply and demand situation and seasonal impact”.

The gas supplier further said that as a result, the company was processing a refund of total Rs513million to the consumers, out of which, the amount already refunded in February/March, 2019, stands at approximately Rs50million, while the amount being refunded now, stands at approximately Rs463million.

The company further said that the exercise of physical cross-checking and subsequent adjustment of amount will continue.

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In March 2019, the prime minister had also directed the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to refund the excess amount charged to the customers under the pretext of gas charges, according to The News.

The prime minister had cited departmental investigations to reveal that excessive amount was charged to as many as 30 per cent consumers.

In December 2019, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) had proposed a hike of up to 213.7 per cent in gas price to the federal government for domestic consumers from January 2020. 

The increase meant that SNGPL, which provides gas supply to Punjab and KP, would collect around Rs244 billion and SSGC, which supplies gas to the consumers in Sindh and Balochistan, would collect Rs275 billion.