New gas price: Cong refuses to comment, says its EC's domain

Congress today refrained from commenting on Election Commission order asking UPA government to defer notifying doubling of price of the fuel produced by companies such as Reliance Industries till general elections are over.
"There is no question of Congress commenting on it. This is entirely EC's domain. The Supreme Court is also looking into the matter. So it is both sub judice and sub EC. We have nothing to say on that," party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.
A new pricing regime was to be implemented from next month for all private and public sector natural gas producers under which rates were to rise to USD 8.3 next month from current USD 4.2 per million British thermal units.

The EC order, which came yesterday, asked the UPA government to defer notification regarding its decision of doubling the price of natural gas from April 1.
Aam Aadmi Party today accused Union Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily of siding with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) over the issue of gas pricing and welcomed the Election Commission's directive. It also raised questions over "silence" of Congress and BJP on the matter.
There is a view in Congress that while the legality of EC's order could be questioned, the government is unlikely to challenge the order as it could be used by the Opposition parties to paint Congress as supporting RIL and could create troubles for the party in an election period.

"This is a process in the government that was started long ago...It is inappropriate for the party to comment on it. At best you can ask it from the government," Singhvi said at the AICC briefing responding to a volley of questions on the issue.