Following a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Monday, Minister of Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan broke down the increase in gas prices across the country for media personnel.
Flanked by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Khan explained that the government had categorised gas consumers into seven slabs instead of the pre-existing three to spread the impact of the gas price hike progressively.
The first slab, which comprises nearly 38pc of the consumers, groups together people who consume upto 50 cubic metres of gas per month. This category of customers will experience a nearly 10pc increase in gas prices, which the minister illustrated by explaining that the bill for a customer who pays Rs252 per month on average will now rise to Rs275.
The second slab, comprising users who consume up to 100 cubic metres of gas per month, will have to bear an increase of 15pc in prices.
The third slab, comprising users who consume up to 200 cubic metres of gas, will experience a 19pc increase.
"The first three slabs comprise consumers from lower and middle class," Khan said. "They will bear a collective increase of 10-20pc in gas prices in the form of a few rupees."
The price hike for the "upper class", comprising consumers who use up to 300 cubic metres of gas per month, will be 25pc. This 'upper class', Khan explained, formed 16pc of all consumers.
The next category of customers, who use up to 400 cubic metres of gas per month, will have to bear a 30pc increase in gas prices.
The category of customers who use more than 400 cubic metres of gas per month will be slapped with 143pc higher tariffs.
In all, this would help raise Rs94 billion from end users, the minister explained.
