PM orders petrol pump licences cancelled over fuel subsidy failures
The relief programme runs to at least end-December, with about Rs28 billion spent and roughly 15 million people paid directly so far.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday directed the authorities to cancel the licences of petrol pumps that do not facilitate people registered under the Prime Minister's Fuel Relief Programme. He chaired a meeting in Islamabad to review the scheme's progress.
The programme will continue until at least the end of December, ProPakistani reported, citing the prime minister's announcement. About Rs28 billion has been spent on it so far.
Roughly 15 million people have received the subsidy directly, according to ProPakistani, and the number of beneficiaries rises to an estimated 75 million when their family members are counted.
The Prime Minister's Office said in a statement that Shehbaz expressed satisfaction with the programme's implementation and transparency, Dawn reported. "Simplifying the registration and subsidy disbursement procedures has led to an increase in registrations, enabling more deserving citizens to benefit from the facility," the statement said.
ProPakistani reported that the prime minister said the programme was operating transparently overall, but that intelligence agencies had identified irregularities at several petrol pumps. He directed Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik to close those outlets and impose heavy financial penalties on those responsible.
International crude oil prices have been rising and had threatened to push domestic petrol prices higher. Shehbaz credited Ali Pervaiz Malik, his team, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority and the relevant committee with approaching refineries to share their windfall profits, ProPakistani reported. The arrangement was intended to prevent a proposed increase of Rs15 per litre from being passed on to consumers.
The two reports described the action against pumps in different terms. Dawn, citing the PMO statement, said licences would be cancelled where pumps failed to facilitate registered beneficiaries. ProPakistani said the prime minister ordered the closure of outlets where intelligence agencies found irregularities. Neither report said how many pumps face action, or named any of them.
How the reports differ
Dawn led with the directive to cancel the licences of pumps that fail to facilitate registered beneficiaries, and carried the PMO statement that the prime minister was satisfied with the programme's implementation and transparency, including the line on simplified procedures raising registrations. ProPakistani alone reported that the subsidy will run until at least the end of December, that about Rs28 billion has been spent, and that 15 million people have been paid directly with 75 million beneficiaries counting family members. ProPakistani also framed the action against pumps as a response to intelligence-agency findings of irregularities, with closure and heavy financial penalties ordered through Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, and named OGRA and the refinery windfall-profit arrangement, which Dawn's excerpt did not.
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