Dear Friends, Peace and Love,
In the land of the modern-day Pharaohs, USA, they push their own people
to despair, abandon them to die and compartmentalise them according
to their race, religion and status - poor and destitute on one side, rich and
famous on the other, white on the right and blacks on left.
In the land of the Liars, Cheats and Dupes, UK, they lie, fool, hoodwink
their own people with impunity and arrogance. In the land of the Men in
Uniform, despots and dictators - Pakistan - they swindle, defraud and
rip-off their own simple, naive, poor, innocent people. And the world moves
on - Merry-go-round and round and round - tryrants smile, innocents weep.
With full knowledge and complete approval of their corrupt,
godless, senseless Government, big oil companies in Pakistan
are ripping off the people by jacking up prices at gas stations,
under any unrelated pretext, thanks to the scam called the
Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC).
âIt is the biggest fraud with the general public as well as the
economy of the country going on in the name of OCAC with the
blessing of the Petroleum Ministry,â an expert well-versed with
the situation revealed. Bankrupt country that spends over 80
pwercent of their GDP and income on acquiring weapns of mass
destruction - raise money to come out of bankruptcy by cheating
and ripping off their poor, destitute people.
Details available to the South Asia Tribune prove that the waters
of OCAC are more fishy than they appear. OCAC is the regulatory
body that manages the prices of oil products in the country. That it
has turned into a hand maiden of oil companies to screw the
consumers is another matter.
The scam being run by the OCAC is fairly sophisticated and well
covered for ordinary folks to understand, far less object to. Usually
OCAC uses the price of West Texas International (WTI), a US crude,
as its benchmark. This is the first step of the rip off because Pakistan
imports its crude from the Middle East where prices are usually $10
per barrel less than WTI.
Even out of the Middle East, Pakistan State Oil (PSO), the largest
crude oil consumer takes its supplies from Kuwait Petroleum which
sells oil on a long-term basis and prices remain fairly stable. Purchases
from KP have been going on for the last 35 years. Shell Pakistan,
another major buyer, gets its supplies from its mother company Shell
International while Caltex Pakistan gets its oil from Caltex International.
âIn all these purchases the per barrel price has never crossed $37
which can be verified from the accounts of these companies,â the
informed oil expert told the South Asia Tribune. Instead of using the
actual import price of the crude, the OCAC has cleverly stuck to the
lucrative old formula which allows it to fix the retail price pegged to
the price of Naphtha. âOCAC adds the price of Naphtha to the
highest international market price of crude, the latest being $71 per
barrel, and thrusts it down the throats of an unknowing public,â the
expert said.
âFor five years, these greedy corporate barons have managed to
get $30-$40 per tonne more than they paid bringing profits by the
millions. Pakistan consumes 1.4 million tonnes a year so profits for
five years is not difficult to assess,â the expert said. The most
lucrative field for the oil companies is playing with the price of
High Speed Diesel (HSD). The quantum of profit margins here can
be estimated as Pakistan consumes 9.3 billion liters of diesel annually.
According to the standard set by Platts Oilgram (the official reference
journal) no product in Pakistan has the required quality to qualify as
a âpremium class productâ. But OCAC continuously sells low quality
products as âpremium gradeâ and fraudulently jacks up its price.
According to the Platts Oilgram, HSD containing not more than
0.5 per cent sulphur is considered as a premium product and the
additional cost ranges from $0.8 to $1.3 per barrel.
Pakistan started importing some premium grade HSD, with a 0.5 per
cent sulfur content in June 2003 but not a single oil refinery in the
country produces this quality HSD. âAll the refineries are producing
1 per cent HSD that is not a premium product. But all the refineries
are adding premium costs ranging from $1.67 per barrel to $2.6 per
barrel and passing on this undeserved extra surcharge to the
consumers,â says the expert. According to an estimate, the amount
plundered on this account alone is more than Rs22 billion per annum.
The oil mafia is also using another lever to raise the POL prices
artificially. It is the unnecessary levy of 11 per cent regulatory duty
on HSD and 6 per cent on other products starting from June 2002.
But this duty should be levied on imported oil only. OCAC allows
even local producers to charge it and not a single rupee is paid
to the Government Treasury. By this trick, local refineries benefit
to the tune of Rs4.8 billion per annum as duties have been included
in the price setting mechanism.
The third trick to continuously rip off the consumers is
through changes in the specifications of the products. "The oil
refineries are mixing kerosene oil with HSD at the refinery level
which basically is a criminal offence," the expert says. These
unchecked money making alternatives have allowed Oil Marketing
Companies and refineries to boost their revenues and profits which
are directly proportional to the burden placed on the consumers.
Thus the earnings per share (EPS) of National Refinery Limited
(NRL) rose from Rs4 in 1998 to Rs27.82 in 2003-04 despite the
fact that auditors reported Rs5 billion worth of crude un-accounted
for. The OCAC claim that corrections would result in refinery closure.
The next level of artificially jacking up the prices is escalation in
marketing margins and retailer margins. Prior to October 1999,
marketing companies were getting fixed margins ranging from
Rs0.22 to Rs0.55 per liter. The then Secretary Petroleum therefore
lied to the Cabinet that it was pegged at 2 per cent of retail and
wanted it to be increased initially to 3 per cent and later to 3.5
per cent. On paper it seemed to be a 50 to 75 per cent raise.
The trick was to apply this raise not on fixed margins of
Rs0.22 â Rs0.55 per liter but on retail price, thus compounding
the increase to almost 300 per cent. For example, the margin on
gasoline which stood at Rs0.52 per liter increased to Rs1.89 per
liter. Same was done in the case of retailer margins. The massive
increases in these margins were allowed by the Government on the
pretext that Oil Marketing Companies would build additional storages
in the country but till today not a single storage has been built but
all the profits have been swallowed. Read the story an see the
Table of 'ground reality' here:
May Justice and Truth prevail, Dr Homi Wadia
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
Complete archives at http://www.sitbot.net/
Please let us stay on topic and be civil.
OM
SPONSORED LINKS
| United state bankruptcy court western district of texas | United state life insurance | United state patent |
| United state patent search | United states patent office | United state flag |
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "cia-drugs" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
