BJP Will Revisit Gas Price Issue: Yashwant Sinha

BJP Will Revisit Gas Price Issue: Yashwant Sinha

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government will revisit the proposal to double the price of gas from Reliance Industries KG Basin, if it comes to power, senior BJP Leader Yashwant Sinha said Sunday.

Addressing mediapersons here, Sinha said there is a case for revisiting this issue.

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta and an NGO had petitioned against the gas-pricing formula approved by a cabinet panel that would have led to a doubling of the gas price from the current USD 4.2 per million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu) to nearly USD 8.4/mmBtu with effect from April one.

On being approached by the Centre, the Election Commission had last week said that the decision be kept on hold for two months till the Lok Sabha elections are over.

This is expected to delay, by at least a few months, the revision of the gas price that attracted controversy when it was announced in June last year.

"Unfortunately while both the Petroleum Ministry and Standing Committee were engaged in the task of examining the issue, the government went ahead and decided to increase the price of gas according to the formula suggested by the Rangarajan panel," Sinha said adding that there is a case for re-examining the various parameters of the cost plus formula which has been adopted.

"There will be enough scope to revisit the issue and the whole set of parameters," Sinha said.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal in his stint as Delhi chief minister ordered an FIR against Indian oil minister M Veerappa Moily, Mukesh Ambani and others for allegedly conspiring to double gas prices.

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