Several sectors owe the government some Rs448.86 billion to the federal government under Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC), over half of the total amount charge. This was disclosed during a meeting of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Petroleum which was held in Islamabad on Monday. The meeting was chaired by Senator Mohammad Abdul Qadir. Figures shared during the meeting showed that GIDC charges collected from the public by varying sectors have not been deposited in the government exchequer.

A document of the money charged, recovered and outstanding balance showed that a whopping sum of Rs795 billion was charged from sectors including industry (captive power), Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Fertilizer (feed), Fertilizer (fuel), Industry (general), Industry (textile), Independent Power Producers, Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) - Genco, K-Electric and Pakistan Steel Mills. Of this charged sum, the government had so far recovered a total of Rs346 billion, or around 43.6%. This meant that a GIDC sum of around Rs448 billion was outstanding.

The biggest offender was Fertilizer (Feed) which owed the government some Rs171.326 billion. It was followed by CNG sector with 82.253 billion, captive power with 54.335 billion and K-Electric with Rs39.184 billion. The textile industry has combined arrears of Rs22 billion, the document read. As a percentage of money owed, IPPs owed the least while Steel Mills owed the most.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP