The oil industry has refused to pay annual fees to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) unless formal notification of an agreement on fee structure reached in June last year.
The oil industry and OGRA reached an out-of-court settlement on a two-year old dispute over fee structure payable by all oil marketing, refining, storage, and pipeline companies.
The two sides also signed a formal agreement to double the term of license for the oil related companies from 15 to 30 years with a fee of Rs2.5 million per license while annual fee structure was based on the market size and throughput sales.However, OGRA or the government did not issue a notification or statutory regulatory order to formalize the agreement over the following nine months. Facing cash flow constraints, OGRA suddenly ordered the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) to “ensure the payment of outstanding fee from oil industry on the immediate basis”.
