NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has decided to raise gas prices by about a third to $5.61 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday, a move that seeks to make production more economical and boost domestic supply.
Higher gas prices will attract investment but the quantum of rise is not going to hurt consumers, Jaitley told a news conference after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet took a long-delayed decision on gas prices.
In India, bulk of local gas is currently sold at a base price of $4.2 per mmBtu. The hike was smaller than had been considered by the last government, which lost a general election in May to Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Douglas Busvine)
