March 27, 2019: The two state companies, Sui Northern Gas Company Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), have been given the target of reducing their Unaccounted for Gas (UFG) losses by one percent every year, which stood at 11 percent and 13 percent respectively.

 “During the last five years, the UFG losses registered one percent increase every year, which caused Rs 154 billion loss to both the companies and increased the gas tariff,” an official privy to Petroleum sector developments said on Wednesday.

He said the UFG loss ratio of SNGPL and SSGC had reached 11 and 13 percent due to wrong strategy of the previous government and non-professional approach to streamline the matters related to gas supply.

Now, the companies have been given the target to reduce the losses, for which they would have complete support of law enforcement departments.

The incumbent government had devised an effective strategy to bring down the UFG ratio, under which companies would remove service lines of those consumers whose gas connections were neither intact anymore nor enrolled in the monthly billing system due to certain reasons.

Modalities of the company’s future plan in this regard are being finalized to prevent the line losses, while government is also planning to establish special police stations at all regions of SNGPL and SSGC to bring down the UFG ratio.

He said gas theft, law and order affected areas, minimum billing, leakages, measuring errors and shift of bulk sales to retail sector were among the major UFG contributing factors.

The UFG, being one of the most critical elements in the gas sector, played a vital role in reducing the profitability of the gas transmission and distribution companies.

The government had promulgated the Gas (Theft Control & Recovery) Ordinance, 2016 and involved law enforcement agencies to prevent gas theft.

Almost all Industrial customers had been ‘Cyber Locked’ by restricting unauthorized access to the Customer Meter Stations and allowing entry to authorized personnel only.

Besides, Electronic Volume Correctors have been installed at almost all the industries for strict check and balance on gas consumption and abnormalities.

(APP)

27011