Gas price review panel submits report

The four-member Committee of Secretaries (CoS) set up by the government to review the gas-pricing formula has submitted its report to the petroleum ministry.

Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan will examine the report before it is placed before the cabinet, a ministry source told IANS Wednesday.

"The report has been signed and submitted. The recommendations on pricing are not being disclosed right now," the source added.

The government last month constituted a committee comprising the secretaries of power, fertilizer and expenditure with Rajive Kumar, additional secretary in the petroleum ministry, as its member secretary.

The committee has held discussions with representatives of both gas producers and consumers on the issue.

Sep 30 is the deadline for announcing the new gas price.

A final decision on pricing, however, may be further delayed due to assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana next month, the official told IANS..

The committee's brief is to examine the whole range of issues related to gas pricing, including the Rangarajan Committee formula, which was approved by the previous UPA government but could not be implemented as the Election Commission barred price announcement in the period leading up to general elections.

A new price based on the Rangarajan Committee formula would have most likely doubled the gas price to $8.4 per unit from April 1.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on June 25 decided to defer implementation of the Rangarajan formula till Sep 30 and come up with a new regime by Oct 1.

The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) and its partners British oil giant BP and Niko Resources have served an arbitration notice on the government on revising their gas price, which expired on March 31 this year.

The oil ministry, on the other hand, has imposed a penalty on the company for failing to meet output targets from RIL-led consortium's D-1 and D-3 fields in the KG-D6 eastern offshore block to the extent of 1.9 trillion cubic feet of gas.

There has been opposition to the Rangarajan formula from various quarters on account of its likely impact on electricity tariff, urea cost, CNG rates and piped cooking gas price.

Every dollar increase in gas rates will lead to a Rs.1,370 per tonne rise in urea production costs and a 45 paise per unit increase in electricity tariff. There would be a minimum Rs.2.81 per kg increase in CNG rates, and a Rs.1.89 per standard cubic metre hike in piped cooking gas cost.

Meanwhile, a committee led by former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar has recommended market-linked pricing for domestic natural gas.

A consultation paper sent to the petroleum ministry by the Kelkar Committee, formed by the previous UPA government last year to suggest a roadmap for cutting import dependency in the hydrocarbon sector by 2030, has suggested market determined pricing for natural gas to make new exploration and production activities viable.