RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum Thursday approved “the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (Amendment) Bill, 2018 with amendments to enable the CNG stations to clear outstanding amount of Rs 12 billion of the GIDC.

The meeting of the standing committee was held under chairmanship of Mohsin Aziz which discussed in detailed “The Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

Earlier, Senator Mohsin Aziz’s name was proposed by Senator Mir Kabeer Ahmed Shahi for the chairmanship of the committee. While chairing the Committee he said that the Committee will deal with petroleum related issues of less developed areas in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on priority basis.

The chairman of the Committee told members about the background of the GIDC amendment bill. Later, the committee approved the Bill with certain amendments. The committee was informed that the CNG stations had collected the GIDC as per notified tariff of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), but did not pay to the government. However, now the ministry has informed the committee that the CNG associations have agreed to pay approximately half of the amount payable pertaining to the period from January 1 to May 22, 2015 amounting Rs 12 billion.

Amendment of section 3,Act IV of 2015, In the Gas Infrastructure Cess Act,2015(IV of 2015), in sub- section(1), after the colon at the end, the following proviso shall be added ‘Provided that the federal government may prescribe a mechanism to assign collection of cess through the Federal Board of revenue or any other institution as deemed appropriate,”. However it was not added to the amendment and now the CNG station will pay GIDC through SNGPL or SSGCL.

In sub-section (3), for proviso, the following shall be substituted, namely” provided that the said mark-up shall be payable from the date of commencement of the Gas infrastructure Development Cess(Amendment)Act,2018,”

Amendment of section 8, Act IV of 2015, in the said Act, in section 8 sub-section(2), the following new sub-section(3) shall be added “for CNG sector half of cess levied or charged from the first day of January, 2012 to the 21st May 2015 in accordance with notification issued by the Federal The government from time to time, shall be paid by CNG stations who enter into an agreement with Sui Southern Gas Pipeline Limited or Sui Southern Gas Company Limited as the case may be in prescribed manner. Provided that the amount shall be recovered in two tranches, first within one month and second within three months from the commencement of the GIDC (amendment) Act,2018. Provided further that the dispensation made in this sub-section shall not be available to those CNG stations who fail to enter into an agreement with SNGPL or SSGCL, as the case may be within 30 days of the commencement of the GIDC(Amendment)Act, 2018.