Need to stop illegal gas connections

Although the government has resumed providing gas connections to the domestic customers and residential houses, yet the consumers in many areas of the country are getting it through underhand dealings.
Reports in the media this week say some unscrupulous sections of Titas officials and also public representatives are allegedly involved in the business. According to a report, gas is being provided to the people of Narsingdi and Narayanganj through unauthorised pipeline, covering a distance of 100 kilometres (km) with 50,000 illegal connections.
The illegal gas supply is depriving a good number of industrial establishments of the much-needed energy and also the government of a large amount of revenues. It was alleged that Titas authorities failed to control gas-stealing due to involvement of many of its staff and other influential sections of people in the process.
When the mobile court launched a drive to take actions against the offenders, the magistrates concerned were reportedly insulted. A number of 16 spots were identified. There 'consumers' are enjoying illegal gas connections. Several thousands of them in such areas are, thus, getting the gas illegally, said the report.
According to another report, a section of dishonest Titas officials and employees has given illegal gas connections to a large number of households in Gazipur city in exchange of 'speed money'. Titas officials and their accomplices -- a group of contractors -- are making quick bucks, enticing domestic users to take illegal gas connections.
The racket involved in the business was encouraged after it was made known that the parliamentary standing committee on ministry of power, energy and mineral resources had recommended legalisation of the 'illegal' gas connections recently through any logical process. The announcement of the standing committee also boosted the 'morale' of the dishonest Titas officials to take recourse to more unethical practices of giving illegal connections.
Very recently, the Petrobangla chairman said that the government was losing revenue worth, at least, Tk 1.8 million (US$ 30,000) everyday due to illegal gas connections to household consumers alone. Petrobangla made a survey over illegal gas connections and found that around 9.0 million cubic feet a day (mmcfd) of gas was pilfered through the illegal connections to households.
Petrobangla identified that over 1,17,414 domestic connections were given in the Titas gas distribution and transmission area against the decision of the authority in the last few years. The Titans authorities collected TYK. 2.0 billion as bills from 57,414 illegal connections. It was also found that about 60,000 consumers did not pay any money for their consumption of gas. Petrobangla estimates that around 31.47 mmcf gas is needed to meet the demand of residential consumers across the country. Already 11.08 mmcf gas are being consumed illegally. So the requirement for meeting the hidden demand of residential consumers is 20 mmcf of gas.
The most interesting point is that such a kind of pilferage was occurring in broad daylight, but nobody made any effort to reduce, if not stop, it during the last few years. Even not a single member of the staff of the gas marketing and distribution companies was nabbed or penalized for such an act. Only Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, a law firm, came to the scene and filed a writ petition in November 2012 with the High Court (HC), seeking an embargo on such illegal connections.
In line with the recommendation of the parliamentary standing committee, the government decided to legalise illegal gas connections, along with imposition of some financial penalties. Analysts said such a kind of widespread pilferage should not be dealt with only through measures in the form of financial penalties. Responsible officers and employees of the gas distribution and marketing companies should be arrested and jailed for such an act. Why should be only the consumers slapped with penalties? It is now clear that the errant employees of those companies lured the consumers to get the illegal connections in exchange of speed money.
According to reports, a hefty amount of money -- to the tune of Tk 3.0 billion -- were deposited with Titas accounts by illegal gas consumers. The audit teams are unable to trace where from such money came as there are no records of these consumers. In this way, the government is otherwise losing a large amount of money as revenue.
Although illegal gas connections are galore, the decision about giving new gas connections to industries and commercial consumers was put on hold for a long time. Thousands of potential bulk gas users, who had already set up their establishments after making heavy investment by taking loans from banks, are waiting for an indefinite period.
Despite having made several rounds of persuasions with the concerned authorities of the government at different levels, the gas connection-seekers failed to obtain the same. Some 248 applications were approved from among the bulk consumers' groups to give gas connections. Allegations have it that no specific rules were, in fact, followed while approving the applications in five phases. Even, no technical data and information sheet was attached with the applications while the committee approved them.
When the government had halted gas connections to households in July 2010, it promised to restart it when the overall supply would reach 2,200 mmcfd. It also promised to bring the prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and piped natural gas to households to an equilibrium level. The country's overall gas production exceeded 2,200 mmcfd about two years ago. But the government took more than one year to resume gas connections. The decision on rationalising the LPG price is yet to be taken. Due to this dillydallying, tangible result remains yet to be seen.
On its part, the government do need to take effective measures to stop giving illegal gas connections. The administrative set-ups of the state-owned marketing and distribution companies should also be effectively streamlined in order to help promote and encourage the pursuit of proper gas management practices in the country.
szkhan@dhaka.net