With the gas system facing a Rs100 billion deficit on their account, senior officials have said authorities are working on a staggered increase for ‘protected residential consumers’ across the country from January 2024.

This yet another increase, follows the 193 percent gas tariff hike in November 1, 2023. In that however, the protected gas consumers didn’t experience any increase except for that in meter charges from Rs10 to Rs400 per month, reported The News International.

In Pakistan,  these protected gas consumers constitute 57 percent of the total countrywide consumers.

The authorities want to increase the gas prices of the protected consumers by 100 percent in two phases, in January and July 2024, which are currently at the lowest ebb compared to the other categories of domestic consumers, the newspaper reported.

Under the IMF diktat, the government is also set to end the disparity of gas tariff between export and non-export industries in January 2024 which will fetch them a Rs20-30 billion more revenue, the newspaper reported.

“Those captive power plants connected with the natural electricity grid would not be provided gas, but those not connected with the national grid will now get the RLNG and not the local gas. The government is working to increase the gas tariff for the export sector by Rs100 per MMBtu both for export and captive plants to bring their tariff at par with the tariff of non-export industry.” “According to IMF directions, these measures would generate additional revenue of over Rs100 billion. This would scale down the natural gas circular debt that currently stands at Rs1,250 billion,” officials told the newspaper.