CNG price soars by Rs 12/kg, PNG by Rs 9.50/SCM in Maharashtra

The company on Tuesday 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 percent. 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 percent over petrol 31 percent cheaper than diesel, while domestic PNG is around 19 percent 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 percent to 3 percent. But that announcement came on the same day when the Centre jacked-up producers' price by a whopping 110 percent 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.