Gas pinch: CNG price up by Rs 12 a kg, PNG by Rs 9.50 in Maharashtra

While fuel rates remained on pause, CNG and PNG prices added to Wednesday’s pinch. Within a week of steeply increasing the retail price of CNG and PNG, Maharashtra announced another hike in the prices of these fuels by Rs 5/kg and Rs 4.50, citing the massive rise in input prices.

It had earlier raised the retail price of auto fuel CNG and cooking gas PNG by Rs 7 and Rs 5, respectively.

MGL had on March 31 lowered the retail prices of CNG by Rs 6/kg and for PNG by Rs 3.50 after the state government had slashed VAT on these fuels to 3 per cent from 13.5 per cent effective April 1.

On April 6, MG increased the prices of these fuels by Rs 7 and Rs 5, respectively.

The company today announced a Rs 5/kg hike in auto CNG to Rs 72/kg and by Rs 4.50 /SCM for domestic piped natural gas to Rs 45.50/SCM in and around Mumbai.

It said from April 1, the Centre has increased the supply price of domestically-produced natural by 110 per cent.

Further, the cost of re-gasified LNG, which is being blended to offset the shortfall in the availability of domestic gas for CNG and domestic PNG segments, is at historically high levels. This combination has resulted in a significant increase in the cost of gas being procured by MGL, it said.

The revised price of CNG is cheaper by 59 per cent over petrol 31 per cent cheaper than diesel, while domestic PNG is around 19 per cent cheaper than LPG, it added.

On March 31, the utility had announced a steep reduction in the retail price of CNG by Rs 6/kg and piped gas by Rs 3.50/SCM, from April 1 after the state had lowered VAT on natural gas from 13.5 per cent to 3 per cent.

But that announcement came on the same day when the Centre jacked-up producers’ price by a whopping 110 per cent for the next six months beginning April 1 for domestically produced natural gas citing a spike in global energy rates.

The supply price of gas from regulated fields of state-owned ONGC and Oil India rose to a record USD 6.10 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) from USD 2.90, and the rate for difficult fields like deepwater will rise to USD 9.92 per mmBtu for April-September from USD 6.13 per mmBtu.