New Delhi, July 22: A Group of Ministers (GoM) will meet on Wednesday to discuss revision of natural gas prices after a gap of four years and consider change in the country's main trunk gas pipeline HBJ's transportation tariff. The GoM will discuss increasing domestic natural gas prices from the current cap of Rs 2850 per thousand cubic meters to a level "acceptable to major consuming power and fertiliser sectors," official sources said.
"The GoM may fix a price between Rs 3250 per thousand cubic meters and Rs 3500 per thousand cubic meters," they said adding a Committee of Secretaries, which went into the issue of gas pricing at the request of GoM, has suggested a hike of a minimum Rs 400 per thousand cubic meters.
The new price, which will be applicable to natural gas produced by Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Oil India Ltd from current fields, will remain static for the next two years.
In the meantime, a tariff committee would be set up to study the costs and suggest reasonable price for the period till complete deregulation of gas prices came about.
Bureau Report