Islamabad: Consumer Rights Commission (CRCP) expresses its strong reservations on the proposed draft of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), which is likely to be enacted in the forthcoming cabinet meeting. CRCP terms the proposed draft of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) is-inadequate and insensitive to consumer and citizens' interests and a negation of the very essence and rationale behind the establishment of any regulatory body. The major objections are as follows:

Section 9 (chapter II) of the proposed draft clearly states that the Authority can decide any issue without necessarily soliciting public opinion and giving any possibility for citizens and consumers of petroleum products and natural gas to present their views before the Authority. CRCP believe that the regulators are required to hear all the stakeholders including government, industry and the consumers and then make decisions and tariff determination.

Given the rationale of regulatory bodies all over the world and the explicit provisions for participation of all the stakeholders in available regulatory frameworks in Pakistan, it is beyond our comprehension as to why the right of representation should be denied in the case of oil and gas regulatory authority. The right of participation has explicitly been granted under Section 4(c) and Section 6(f) of Pakistan-Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and under Section 7 (6) and Section 31(3) (b) of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) respectively. .

Definitions in Section 2 (Chapter I) dealing with consumer protection are very restrictive
and do not recognize consumer groups and public interest organizations as the legitimate
stake holders.
CRCP maintains ^hat the OGRA draft does not provide adequate guarantees for environment protection. It is an established fact that Oil and Gas Industry is among the major polluters of environment. It has tremendous potential to play havoc with environment. Therefore provisions dealing with environment protection have to be very comprehensive and exhaustive. Whereas the provisions dealing with environment protection are restrictive and inadequate. Particularly the qualification (proviso) to sub-section 3 Section 6 seems to be an attempt to protect the interest of power full oil and gas companies at the cost of environment.

The Section 21 (2) ( c) (Chapter III), the draft empowers the Federal Government to issue
policy guidelines including but not limited to "pricing of petroleum". CRCP is of the opinion that the governmental intervention in the mattes of price/tariff determination is, clearly against the scheme & spirit of regulatory laws. The question of price/tariff determination should be left to the Authority, which must follow accepted international practices, and no room should be left for any kind of governmental intervention. It may be pointed out that existing regulatory framework, like PTA (See Section 8 of the Act) and NEPRA, do not include such provisions and, in our view. Federal Government should not have jurisdiction to the effect of issuing guidelines on price/tariff determination.

In Section 5(4) (Chapter II), the proposed Ordinance states that a member of Authority, with a written approval of the Federal Government, may enter into an employment of or accept any professional or advisory relationship with any corporation, partnership, trust, or company, carry on business in any phase of the petroleum industry, before the expiration of two years after he has ceased to hold that office. CRCP believes that the provision needs to be deleted, as it would be in violation of established norms and may create opportunities for powerful vested interests to interfere with the regulatory work.

Section 33(chapter VII) deals with powers of Authority to call for any information. CRCP maintains that keeping in view the right to privacy in certain matters like marketing strategies etc. power of Authority to call for "any information" seems to be unjust and unfair. There is need to reconcile the right to know and the right to privacy in certain matters and section should be amended accordingly.

CRCP believed that to protect the rights of freedom of information, it is necessary to add the provisions relating to submission, filling, recording and timely and use full dissemination of information regarding the petroleum & Gas industry OGRA draft proposes to repeal Natural Gas Regulatory Authority (NGRA). The issues related to merging of NGRA have not been adequately dealt with and no provisions have been made for the protection of rights of consumers of natural gas. Even the protection given to domestic consumers in NGRA Ordinance 2000 has not been given in the proposed draft.

CRCP farther stated that such weak legislative arrangements would not only make the consumers more vulnerable but also adversely impact the business in Pakistan and make the whole sector dependent on this emerging bureaucracy of regulatory bodies. The proposed draft does not guarantee even the minimal protection that is available to consumers and citizens under PTA Act 1996 and NEPRA Act 1997. CRCP requests the government to optimize the proposed draft, in the light of concerns raised above, before giving it legal effect.