ISLAMABAD, May 5: The opposition battered the government during a debate in the National Assembly on high petroleum prices on Friday, but failed to make a dent in a situation the treasury benches said was beyond their control.
Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon defended the latest increase in the domestic prices of petroleum products after a hard-hitting speech by PML-N parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who led the opposition’s attack on the issue.
The minister attributed the increase enforced on May 1 on record high oil prices in the international market and said he could not predict “what will happen in future”.
The house was prorogued by a presidential order after an eight-day session at the end of the opposition-sought debate to which the government had agreed on Thursday after initial hesitation to face more criticism after opposition’s assaults over law and order, power outages and the general rise in prices of essential commodities during the preceding session last month.
Several opposition members also questioned the increase in the rate of locally-produced compressed natural gas.
Mr Jadoon sidestepped when Mr Khan said that oil prices were increased even when Pakistan was receiving free crude from Saudi Arabia after the 1998 nuclear tests and said the government was not getting “any special concession” on oil purchases from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates or Iran.
He said Pakistan was meeting only 18 per cent of its oil needs from local production and the country had to import the remaining 82 per cent requirements for which it had to pay international prices.
The minister said the government had incurred losses amounting to Rs66 billion by capping the prices over the past year and would meet 50 per cent of the expected Rs4 billion losses even after the new increases.
Mr Jadoon said the government would always be ready to discuss the issue but ignored the opposition’s suggestions for cutting government levies or ask distribution companies to share profits with consumers.
However, he said he expected better energy supply position after the implementation of plans for a gas pipeline from Iran, which is “in the final stages” of agreement, and similar pipelines being negotiated with Qatar and Turkmenistan, establishment of a liquefied petroleum gas terminal at Karachi and the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam.
DISCOVERIES: Mr Jadoon said his ministry was focussing on oil and gas exploration, adding that “two to three” discoveries had been made that would be announced at a proper time. He did not elabortate.
Mr Khan, who had been a petroleum minister during both tenures of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, disputed the government’s claim about payment of a subsidy and accused it of making money along with oil distribution companies.
He said the government had increased oil prices 114 times in its six years, including 44 times when, according to him, Saudi Arabia was supplying free crude oil to Pakistan for four and a half years.
Mr Khan asked the government to cut taxes on petroleum products, which he estimated to be 45 to 48 per cent of the total cost, ask the distribution companies to share their “bounty” with consumers and consider alternative sources of energy like ethanol.
He accused the government of following a “penny wise and pound foolish” policy by increasing petroleum prices without realising the harmful impact on the country’s exports in the international market.
PPP Parliamentarians’ chief Amin Fahim protested against the price increases only weeks ahead of the announcement of the new budget and said the government should have reduced its own unnecessary expenses rather than going ahead with projects like a new army general headquarters in Islamabad.
PPP’s Aitzaz Hussain accused the government of playing in the hands of oil companies and said government functionaries could not realise the sufferings of the common people unless they had to pay for their own petrol, gas and electricity bills, adding that their bills were now being borne by the state.
Mr Jadoon did not get much support from the ruling PML members one of whom, Mr M.P. Bhandara, though calling for an end to “VIP culture”, even said the petroleum prices should have been higher to match those in other Saarc countries and termed the government subsidy a mistake.
Another PML member, Ali Akbar Vaince, said he had not seen people “giving up (driving) cars or farmers discarding tractors” because of high petroleum prices.
BNP-M member Abdul Rauf Mengal used the debate to attack what he called a costly military operation and said the country would continue suffering crisis after crisis until it was freed from “military stranglehold”.
