It also sought the state-owned petroleum monopolist to study all possible alternatives to review its recent price hike decision.[break]
The committee issued such instructions to the corporation after it grilled NOC top brass over the latest price hike. The corporation had increased the prices of all major petroleum products on Monday, which made petrol, diesel and kerosene dearer by Rs 3 and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by Rs 75 per cylinder (of 14.2 kgs).
While the decision drew widespread criticism from consumers, student unions and political parties, the corporation has stood firm in its decision, pin-pointing its cause to international price rise.
During the committee´s meeting also, senior NOC officials argued that the corporation raised prices after it found no other solutions to deal with the international crude price jump that would soar its loss to about Rs 430 million in the month of December.
The lawmakers, on the other hand, pin-pointed to NOC´s inefficiency, growing incidents of leakages like unnatural loss of oil from its storage tanks, short supply made by importing tankers and other technical and non-technical losses.
They were of the view that if the corporation effectively plugged these leakages, it need not suffer such a huge loss and transfer the burden to consumers. But instead of working to control internal leakages, they said, the corporation was choosing easier path of price hike.
The lawmakers also raised question over the lack of implementation of much-touted automatic pricing mechanism, something which has hindering timely adjustment of prices, and ultimately forcing consumers face huge price hike at one go. In this connection, the lawmakers urged the corporation to speed-up the process to develop and implement scientific pricing mechanism.
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