South Gujarat industries seek Anandiben's support on gas supply issue

Piramal Group petitions Gujarat CM on behalf of small gas consumers

At the interactive meet held in Mumbai in connection with Vibrant Gujarat 2015, the South Gujarat Small Gas Consumer Association (SGSGCA) petitioned Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister of Gujarat and Saurabh Patel, Industries Minister seeking their intervention with the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and GAIL in connection with a 58 per cent cut in the supply of APM gas.

Most of the 33 industrial units, part of SGSGCA, are in the power intensive glass & ceramic manufacturing and have been located in the remote regions of Gujarat historically due to the availability of APM Gas.

Submitting a petition on behalf of SGSGCA, Swati Piramal, vice chairperson of Piramal Group including Piramal Glass informed the Gujarat CM about the severe shortage of APM gas due to the 58 per cent cut and sought support in the issue. The industry has called for equitable distribution of APM gas instead of the discriminatory cut of 58 per cent.

“This cut has put on stake the livelihood of 30,000 direct and about 1,20,000 indirect workers employed in these units. Some of the companies have already shut part of their production. The South Gujarat Industries consume only 0.5 MMSCMD of gas as against a total allocation of 60 MMSCMD of APM Gas. If applied equitably across all consumers of APM Gas then the the cut would be just 0.5 per cent across the consumers. Keeping aside the gas for the priority sector, an equitable cut across the balance consumers would be 4-5 per cent,” said Piramal.

According to Dr. Piramal, the cut is severely impacting production, employment and exports of the small gas consumers. "The Gujarat leaders gave us a patient hearing. Gujarat has a proactive government which responds to business problems. We are hopeful that a solution would be found quickly so that our production, exports and employment are not affected," Dr. Piramal added.

As per an official communique by SGSGCA, most of the South Gujarat industries were established during the era when there were no takers for natural gas in the isolated fields of Gujarat and it was being flared and that they set up units in the remote and difficult areas with the assurance of low price gas as a source of energy. Many of these units are involved in exports. "These energy intensive industries cannot afford to replace the APM Gas with the commercial gas as it is priced four times higher, SGSGCA added.