Petrobangla to legalise illegal gas consumers

Failing to take any legal action against the distribution agencies for giving illegal gas connections to domestic consumers, Petrobangla is planning to penalise thousands of consumers who have been paying their bills to gas distribution agencies. The state-owned oil and gas company has set June 20, 2013 as the deadline for “legalising” the unauthorised gas connections. Petrobangla chairman Dr Hossain Monsur said on Tuesday that although they were paying their bills regularly to the distribution agencies, the consumers would have to face penalty if their connections were not legalised by June 20.

The Petrobangla chief also said that in the past two and a half years, more than 117,414 domestic connections had been given by the officials of Titas Gas Distribution and Transmission Agency against the decision of the authority. As a result, they had received several hundred crores of taka from the illegal domestic consumers in their fake accounts.

Though the Petrobangla chairman said that the government would take action against the Titas officials involved in the illegal deals, nothing has been done in the last couple of years.

Many questioned why the consumers would suffer for the misdeeds of dishonest Titas officials, who, on the one hand, provided unauthorised connections to the consumers, and on the other, realised bills from the consumers.

Why one should be called an illegal consumer when they were paying their bills regularly, a consumer said, adding that the Titas employees provided them the account numbers for paying the bills.

As per Petrobangla’s announcement, the existing illegal gas connections would be authorised first and then the agencies would give priority to those who had collected “demand note” from the distribution agencies.

Titas asked the illegal consumers to apply for new gas connections to make their existing connections legal by paying Tk. 6,750 as penalty by June 20, failing which, the consumers would face legal action, up to six months in jail.

“What nonsense! Why would I be fined? The government snapped the gas connection when we booked this flat. We do not have extra space in our kitchen to install a gas cylinder, nor can we use wood for fire”, said a disgruntled consumer.

According to Petrobangla, each consumer having a double-burner oven has to deposit Tk. 6,750 (a year’s bills at a flat rate, plus three months’ equivalent bills as penalty) to the respective gas companies to legalise the illegal connections.

After the money has been deposited, consumers will have to pay regular bills from June 1. They have to keep a counterpart of the payment receipt, in case a mobile court visits their locality.

The government officially suspended new domestic gas connections in July 2009.

However, according to Petrobangla’s official statement, domestic consumers are still getting connections in exchange for undercover payment and by lobbying the distribution agencies.

The Petrobangla chairman said, “Titas authorities collected Tk. 200 crore as bills from 57,414 illegal connections and we found that about 58,000 thousand consumers were not paying any money against their gas consumption”.

He also said that the total number of illegal gas burners was 57,414, against which Tk. 116.86 crore had been deposited with Titas Gas. “But this money is not in the official Titas account as it came from the illegal consumers”, he added.

To stop all this, the High Court, on Apr 16, revoked its earlier order against giving new gas connections. However, the new order rotted under red tape as the energy adviser was reluctant to allow the distribution agencies to give new connections.

Finally, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the energy minister, on May 7, directed the authorities concerned to take immediate measures to start giving new gas connections to the domestic consumers across the country.

“Petrobangla estimates that around 31.47-mmcf gas is needed to fulfil the demand of residential consumers across the country, and currently 11.08-mmcf gas is being consumed illegally. As a result, our net requirement to meet the hidden demand of residential consumers is only 20 mmcf gas per day”, Hossain Monsur told The Independent.

Petrobangla earlier estimated that around 10-mmcf gas was being used illegally from the national grid every day.

According to energy ministry estimates, domestic consumers are using around 220-mmcf gas per day. However, Petrobangla daily production capacity is around 2,243 mmcf.

The Petrobangla chief also said that a number of government officials, including bureaucrats, were having illegal gas connections in their homes.

At a press conference, Nowshad Islam, managing director of Titas Gas, said that his company would start giving new connections soon, possibly within the next week.

“We hope to start giving physical connections by next week. We are facing manpower and equipment shortage. So, it may take some time to provide connections to all consumers in one day.

At the most, we can provide 300 connections per day”, he added.

“I would like to urge consumers not to pay any extra money to any Titas gas officials”, he said. In case anybody asked for extra money, they should be reported against to Petrobangla, he added.

“We have initiated an inquiry into the matter and will take action after it is completed”, he told reporters.

He also said that he was in favour of providing gas connections to household consumers, but a quarter within the government misled the policymakers into halting the process.

Source:   Independent