The authorities were unable to charge these consumers with commercial tariff due to non-availability of clear policy framework or law, they added. They said that Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) had already converted electric meters of these 2,700 consumers from domestic to commercial, but the SNGPL was unable to do so and had the only option to disconnect gas connections of all such consumers.
"We have detected a large number of illegal gas connections in the twin cities of Rawalpindi/Islamabad last month, which were causing Rs 30 million loss to the national kitty. We have disconnected gas meters and detected theft cases worth Rs 400 million in the limits of Potohar Region in four months," officials added.
According to the SNGPL officials after the launch of the drive against gas thieves the company has disconnected over 21,000 gas connections so far in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), these illegal gas users were causing an estimated loss of Rs 3 billion to the national kitty.
"In the last five months, the SNGPL has saved over 4.5 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas. The consumer-wise break-up of disconnections include 19,914 domestic, 1,209 commercial, 55 industrial and 68 special domestic cases. The crackdown has only been made possible through hectic efforts of the company employees, coupled with absolute support of various Federal and Provincial Government law enforcement agencies. The company has so far recovered over Rs 130 million and efforts are underway to recover the rest of amount, staying within the available legal framework. FIRs have been lodged and some of culprits have been arrested," the official maintained.
The Unaccounted for gas (UFG) on both the SNGPL and SSGC systems stands at 11 to 12 percent. Out of 3 Billion Cubic Feet per Day (BCFD) gas utilised by the gas utilities around 350 Million Cubic Feet per Day (MMCFD) gas is lost as being UFG.
To deal with the gas theft issue in the twin cities and other areas high ups of the gas utility has formed special monitoring teams which are conducting raids in different areas and have detected thousands of gas theft cases up till now. The officials said that the company has lodged cases against the gas thieves as per prevalent laws.
"Gas connections of 17 hotels in the federal capital have been disconnected on account of using different tactics for tampering the gas meters. We have started legal proceedings against the owners of these hotels and a fine in the range of Rs 2 million to Rs 7 million could be imposed on the persons involved in gas theft," a senior official of SNGPL talking to this correspondent said.
The official added that from January 2013 to-date some 3,000 illegal gas meters have been removed by the company. "We have also identified 4 people involved in providing undocumented gas meters to different clients and they are behind the bars", he maintained.