City gas utility Mahanagar Gas has increased the retail price of compressed natural gas (CNG) and piped natural gas (PNG) by Rs 6/kg and by Rs 4/ unit, respectively, in and around the megapolis from Monday midnight.
The revised retail price of CNG will be Rs 86/kg and domestic PNG will cost Rs 52.50/unit (SCM or standard cubic metre).
The state-run company has attributed the rise to a 40 per cent increase in input prices, along with supply cuts, of natural gas from October 1, as announced by the Union oil ministry’s Petroleum Pricing and Analysis Cell (PPAC). On April 1, the same had been increased by a much higher 110 per cent, citing rising international prices.
The government revises gas prices twice annually – from April 1 to September 30 and from October 1 to March 31. So, the price for October 1 to March 31 is based on the average price from July 2021 to June 2022.
MGL said that apart from hiking prices, the government had also reduced the allocation of gas to MGL by 10 per cent due to which MGL is required to source at a substantially higher cost from the market. The gas utility company also cited the fall in the rupee as another reason for the hike.
The rate paid for gas produced from old fields, which make up for about two-thirds of all gas produced in the country, was hiked to $8.57 per million British thermal units from the current $6.1. Simultaneously, the price of gas from difficult and newer fields like the ones in Reliance Industries and its partner BP-operated deep-sea D6 block in KG Basin, was hiked to $12.6 per mmBtu (metric million British thermal unit) from $9.92.
