By SKM
August 20, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s export-oriented industry has asked the government and OGRA to take required action against SNGPL for sending the bills without any reconciliation for questionable recovery of billions of rupees in the name of actualization of provisional RLNG billing for the period June 2015 to June 2022- nearly a decade of retrospective adjustments in just two working days. This has put the export sector under tremendous stress.
The Industry, which is already under massive stress, says that imposing billions of rupees of multi-year arrears in one billing cycle will severely disrupt cash flows and working capital management. This will result in force production curtailment or shutdowns in export-oriented mills, apart from causing a loss of export orders, market share, and jobs; and it will further erode Pakistan’s already fragile export competitiveness.
Moreover, these relate to closed and past transactions – the orders in question have long since been manufactured and shipped for export. The industry cannot approach its international buyers to revise prices a decade later, and it is entirely unclear from where else such unprecedented sums are expected to be raised to meet these arbitrary bills.
In letters to OGRA chairman, Secretary Petroleum, Prime Minister’s Inquiry Commission and SNGPL’s Managing Director, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) on Wednesday agitated the issue of the bills sent by SNGPL in the name of actualization of provisional RLNG billing for the period June 2015 to June 2022- nearly a decade of retrospective adjustments-with a payment deadline of 12 August 2025.
“Yes, this issue is very serious and being the regulator, OGRA has also written a letter to SNGPL seeking clarification on the subject, OGRA spokesman said. The Letter from OGRA to SNGPL mentions that as per GSA (gas sales agreement) with its consumer as well as under relevant clauses of SNGPL’s consumer service manual, the differential of provisional billing can be recovered or adjusted by the company in a reasonable billing period. However, the differential of provisional RLNG prices and actual RLNG prices has been charged by SNGPL in a single bill instead of staggering into a reasonable number of instalments. OGRA directed SNGPL to comply with its own consumer service manual and instead of recovery in single bill, should adjusted it in future bills in instalments.
OGRA gas directed SNGPL to promptly provide a clear explanations and comprehensive position regarding billing to its consumers in single bill instead of staggering in subsequent bills in instalment-based manner.
APTMA, however, in its latest communications to the various forums strongly protested arguing the arrears had been imposed without any prior explanation, detailed calculations, or reconciliations.
During much of the relevant period RLNG rates were expressly capped at USD 6.5/MMBtu or USD 9/MMBtu with no clarification as to how these ceilings had been incorporated into the adjustments. The issuance of massive, retrospective bills without transparency would devastate an industry already under severe liquidity stress, placing entire manufacturing operations at risk of shutdown. The Textile Industry asked for a minimum 20-day deferment to allow reconciliation of consumption records with the amounts billed and that all consumers be furnished with detailed month-by-month RLNG consumption data, provisional rates, actualized rates, and the calculation of any alleged differentials. Following this, SNGPL extended the payment deadline to 22 August 2025 and issued revised bills. “However, the arrears demand itself was not withdrawn, and all underlying legal and procedural concerns remain unaddressed,’’ says the APTMA letters sent to all the government relevant platforms.
“The ECC decisions of 6 May 2015, 27 July 2015, and 14 June 2016 further delegated to OGRA a monthly, ring-fenced pricing mechanism, under which provisional RLNG prices are adjusted in subsequent periods after verification of final cost components. This framework is expressly designed to rest on transparent disclosure, prudence review, and due process, and requires prospective application of tariff adjustments. In this context, Section 8 of the OGRA Ordinance, 2002 mandates a prospective tariff framework confined to financial-year timelines, while Section 6 requires fairness, transparency, reasoned decision-making, and stakeholder participation. Contrary to these provisions, SNGPL issued RLNG “actualization” bills in July 2025, consolidating alleged adjustments for June 2015 to June 2022 into a single billing cycle. The due date of 12 August 2025, later extended to 22 August 2025 following industry protest, was imposed without prior notice, disclosure of month-wise workbooks, allocation keys, meter-correction logs, cargo-wise cost sheets, foreign-exchange settlements, or machine-readable models, and without any opportunity of hearing,” APTMA reckons with.
The industry asked for suspension of billing of impugned arrears till disposal of the current complaint. APTMA also stressed the immediate withdrawal of the Impugned Arrears from the gas bills of all member mills. Ends
