LPG price hike

With eternally irrepressible sadism in them, the production companies dealing in liquefied petroleum gas have greeted the general public on the occasion of Eidul Azha by increasing on Sunday the LPG price by eight rupees per kilogram across the country. The result is that domestic cylinder has become expensive by Rs100 and the commercial one by 400. Describing the raise as unjustified and unwarranted, chairman of the LPG Distribution Association, Irfan Khokhar, said that the latest raise came as bombshell and demanded of the government to the immediately withdraw it. Dwelling on the impact of the sudden increase, he said that the price of a kilogram of LPG had surged to Rs150 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Muzaffarabad in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. In these parts of the country, the rate of domestic cylinder had increased to Rs1,730. He said that the head of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority had invited the office-bearers of LPGDA to talks after Eid on November 23. If the proposed talks failed to make any headway and the gas prices were not controlled, the association would observe a strike on November 25.

Gas cylinders are mostly used by the consumers belonging to the lower middle class, which is actually euphemism for the poor masses as contemporary society now has only the haves and have-nots. As the coincidence would have it, the International Monetary Fund clarified on Sunday that it exercised no pressure whatsoever on Islamabad with regard to the value of energy and it was entirely up to the government to increase or decrease the prices of electricity and other sources of energy. On the occasion of Eidul Azha if some quantity of meat arrives into the homes of the poor, they will naturally want to burn the kitchen stoves a little longer but due to the price hike fewer people may queue up for gas cylinders. The government, therefore, needs to take notice of the arbitrary raise and rectify the situation possibly before Eid.