ISLAMABAD: Pakistan may face a fuel crisis in the coming months as the oil marketing companies (OMCs) have informed the incumbent regime about their inability to book import orders for the POL products due to financial constraints, a senior government official told The News.
"The government owes Rs 61 billion to the OMCs against the price differential claim (PDC) that has been accumulated since long. The petroleum ministry time and again asked the finance ministry to release the amount piled up against the PDC to the OMCs so that they could maintain oil reserves in the country and ensure fuel supply chain, but the finance ministry is still unmoved."
Petroleum Secretary Farrukh Qayyum told The News that the ministry was very much aware of the concerns of the oil industry and to this effect, officials of the petroleum ministry had held a meeting with their counterparts in the finance ministry on the payment of the PDC to the OMCs. "We would hear a good news today (Thursday) from the finance ministry about the release of some PDC amount to the OMCs."
The NWFP industries secretary also wrote a letter to the federal government, informing it that the province was facing an acute fuel shortage. "In the letter, the NWFP sought corrective measures to maintain oil supplies in the province," the source in the ministry maintained.
He said Pakistan State Oil (PSO) had also threatened to cut fuel supply to industries and Wapda, which owe Rs 34 billion to it. Oil industry sources said the oil marketing companies were facing an acute financial crunch and after mid of April, they would not be able to get import orders booked, which may have grave repercussions on the economy during May and June.
Sources said right now, the diesel price had jacked up to $122 per barrel. They said the government had just received a grant of $300 million from Saudi Arabia and $289 million from the US for supporting the war against terrorism, but the caretaker regime was still delaying the PDC payment to the OMCs simply to create problems for the new democratic government.
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