PM Shehbaz forms body to review proposed LPG policy reforms

• Policy seeks to shift LPG imports and price-setting from Ogra to SOEs • State-owned enterprises to introduce import-parity pricing based on Saudi Aramco rates and actual import costs ISLAMABAD: Amid soaring prices following supply disruptions, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted an eight-member ministerial committee to review a set of policy changes proposed by the Petroleum Division for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The proposed reforms envisage allowing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to enter the LPG import business and take over price-setting from the regulator, with prices subsequently passed on to the private sector. The committee was constituted after LPG stakeholders, including marketing companies and dealers, protested against the finalisation of the new LPG policy without consulting them. The policy was earlier scheduled to come into force within a week.

Stakeholders said SOEs had limited LPG import experience and warned that the proposed levy on locally produced LPG would push prices higher, calling for a greater private-sector role. LPG prices in the market range between Rs6,000 and Rs7,200 per 11. 57kg cylinder, according to reported market rates, compared with the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority’s (Ogra) notified price of Rs3,296, as operations at the Iran border came to a halt earlier this month and imports through sea routes declined. The committee, headed by the petroleum minister, will include the ministers for economic affairs and information, the PM’s adviser on interprovincial coordination, special assistant on energy, petroleum secretary, DG liquefied gases and head of the Government Relations Unit (GRU). The committee has one month to review the proposed LPG reforms, cylinder standards and local LPG model, and submit a comprehensive…