The Government-appointed panel for reviewing the pricing of natural gas has sought more time to submit its report as it does a tightrope walk of striking a balance between the expectations of producers and consumers, sources said.
The panel headed by former planning commission member Kirit S Parikh was tasked to suggest a “fair price to the end-consumer” by the end of September.
Given the enormity of the task, the committee wanted 30 more days to finish the report but the Government wants it to wrap up the work by mid-October, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
A decision on the exact duration of the extension will be taken next week after oil secretary Pankaj Jain returns from his overseas trip, they said.
Natural gas is a fossil energy source that formed deep beneath the earth’s surface. It is used to generate electricity, produce fertiliser, convert into CNG to run automobiles and piped to household kitchens for cooking and heating. It is also used in making glass, steel, cement, bricks, ceramics, tile, paper, food products, and many other commodities as heat sources.
Its prices remained docile till last year but have shot up in recent months, raising the cost of production of user industries in general and city gas operators that sell CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households, in particular.
To keep rates under check so that they do not add fire to already high inflation, the government formed the committee to review the way prices of gas produced in India are fixed.
