The national carrier – Pakistan Railways (PR) – has been facing a chronic fuel crisis owing to multiple reasons, of which the unimplemented decision on revision of credit limit by oil suppliers is the biggest.

Previously on the request of the Railways, the government doubled the oil credit limit to Rs2 billion from Rs1 billion to address the fuel crisis, but the oil suppliers have not implemented the decision to revise the credit limit to facilitate the national carrier, an official requesting anonymity said.

PR’s spokesperson said that the government had fixed the outstanding dues limit at Rs1 billion. For the last many months, Railways outstanding dues against diesel were below the billion limit, even before the revision of the credit limit to Rs2 billion recently. There was no shortage of diesel and the hue and cry was not based on facts, he added.

The PR can curtail the fuel crisis if it preferred to procure its majority of diesel requirements from the open market, but it was not being done by the divisional superintendents owing to the lack of will and heavy procedure involved, the official said. It will take five to six days to transport the fuel bought from Karachi to destinations across Pakistan, whereas it will be less time consuming to buy diesel from the local market.