Islamabad:
On Sunday, the government informed an increase in fixed charges on gas bills by 50% and also increased gas prices for non -residential consumers.
According to a notification issued by the Petroleum and Gas Regulation Authority (OGRA) on Sunday, fixed costs have been increased from RS200 to RS600 for the protected category of national consumers.
In the unprotected category, fixed charges went from RS1,000 to RS1,500 for monthly consumption of up to 1.5 hm3. Likewise, fixed consumption costs exceeding 1.5 hm3 was raised to Rs3,000.
The protected category includes a national consumer whose average consumption of the last 4 winter months (November to February) must be less than or equal to 0.9 hm3. On the other hand, the unprotected category includes a national category whose average consumption of the last 4 months must be more than 0.9 hm3.
The revised rate also applies to various institutional and commercial entities. Government institutions, semi-government organizations, hospitals and educational establishments will now be invoiced RS3 175 by MMBTU. For traditional tandors (bread ovens), gas rates have been set between RS110 and RS700 by MMBTU, depending on the level of use.
Commercial consumers will now pay RS3 900 by MMBTU, while general industrial users will be billed RS2,300 by MMBTU. Captive electricity producers – Industries generating their own electricity – will pay RS3,500 by MMBTU, and GNC stations will be billed at RS3,750 by MMBTU.
The cement factories will be faced with the highest rate among industrial users, with prices set at RS4 400 by MMBTU. The fertilizer factories will be billed RS1 597 by MMBTU. For K-Electric companies and other electricity productions, the new price has been set at RS1,225 by MMBTU.
The oil and gas regulatory authority last month determined the estimated income requirements (ERR) for the year 2025-26 for SNGPL and SSGCL. Depending on the determinations, the SNGPL requires revenues from RS534.5 billion and the SSGCL requires revenues from RS354.2 billion to navigate respectively in the 2025-26 financial year. The cumulative income requirements of the two SUP companies are 888.6 billion rupees for the year 2025-26.
The law obliges the federal government to ensure that consumer gas selling prices should not be lower than the income requirement determined by the authority. In the previous consumption gas selling prices notified from February 01, 2025, the estimated income of the two SUP companies at the end of the year 2025-20-26 were Rs847.714 billion.
Some of the members of the ECC criticized by giving a guarantee of asset yield of 24% to the SUP companies, which discourages efforts to improve efficiency by reducing line losses.
The prices have been modified to meet a condition of the International Monetary Fund to adjust the price of gas.
