Dasgupta says Moily reversing govt stand on RIL production shortfall

In yet another diatribe against Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Dasgupta has alleged that the minister was reversing the government's stand on production shortfall from Reliance Industries Ltd's (RIL's) KG-D6 block.

Dasgupta has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, alleging the petroleum ministry is proposing that if it was established that the shortfall in gas production was due to geological difficulties, then RIL be allowed the benefit of higher gas prices.

In his letter, Dasgupta said the government had consistently rejected the RIL contention that the shortfall in production is due to geological difficulty.

The ministry had earlier told the company that it had failed to fulfill its obligations under the production sharing contract, causing loss to the government and shortfall of a scarce resource.

The CPI leader has concluded that the total shortfall in production during four years till 2013-14 was 154 million standard cubic metres a day. If the company was not allowed a higher price of $8.4 on this quantity it would lead to a total saving of Rs 63,000 crore.

Labelling the ministry's current stand as a "thinly disguised attempt to dilute the earlier stand of the government that the shortfall was on account of deliberate malfeasance of RIL", Dasgupta said the minister was trying to weaken the arbitration proceedings against RIL.

He asked the prime minister to insist that the company supply the shortfall in gas production at the old rates.