President Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) Salman Aslam has expressed concern over the government’s provision of oil and expensive RLNG to power plants for industrial and residential consumers in Karachi. He said that supplying RLNG at PKR 4700 per MMBTU instead of natural gas at the rate of PKR 857 per MMBTU will make electricity unaffordable to all consumers.

Salman Aslam said that this discrimination would impose an additional burden of PKR 13 billion on consumers which is unbearable to industries and people.

He said that SSGC, in violation of the load management policy approved by the federal cabinet and orders of the Sindh High Court, by providing only 13 MMBTU for Karachi instead of 100 MMBTU. It is feared that PKR 12 per unit on electricity bills will increase in terms of fuel adjustment.

President KATI said that industries in Karachi especially SMEs could not tolerate a 25-30 percent increase in electricity.

Salman Aslam appealed to the government to urge the SSGC to provide indigenous natural gas to K Electric instead of RLNG so that the consumer of Karachi will not get affected by fuel surcharges, and expensive unit costs, moreover economy can continue to run on low-cost electricity generation. He also demanded K Electric to ensure cheap power generation for Karachi consumers by reducing their dependency on oil and RLNG.