Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday came down heavily on the decision of the UPA Government to hike the price of natural gas with effect from April 2014. last week the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave its approval to increase the price of natural gas from the present 4.2 US Dollars per million British thermal unit (mBtu) to 8.4 US Dollars per mBtU with effect from April 1, 2014.
Jayalalithaa asked the UPA Government to revoke the decision to hike the gas price or the AIADMK itself would see to it that the prices are brought down to the existing level after the next lok Sabha election.
“This decision has been taken with the sole purpose of helping a private conglomerate,” Jayalalithaa charged in a statement released on Monday. “Natural resources like gas are not the private property of anybody and belong to the people of India. They are the original owners of it. Swindling of such resources in the name of Government policies cannot be allowed,” she said in the statement.
“The UPA Government has no moral responsibility to take such a decision with effect from April 2014 as the people had given a mandate to the Government till May 2014. Therefore it is for the Government to be elected after the next lok Sabha election to fix a price. If the UPA Government is adamant against withdrawing the increase, my party AIADMK, which will reach a status of formulating policies at Centre after the next elections, will take steps to change this policy,” Jayalalithaa said.
From being a Government affected with policy paralysis, the Manmohan Singh Government has become one with “policy overdose” following criticism and was only taking economic decisions affecting people, she accused.
This included deregulation of fuel prices, the lPG ceiling, allowing FDI in multi-brand retail and disinvestment of PSU stakes, she said, adding, such moves had paved the way only for the benefit of big corporates and foreign firms.
The AIADMK leader said the CCEA’s decision was based on the C Rangarajan Committee recommendations with the average price of imported gas being determined on a ‘complex method’ based on the rates in North America, Europe and Japan. Jayalalithaa pointed out that international gas prices can never be the basis to fix the price of domestically produced gas.
She said the Government decision will have a big impact on industries using gas, especially fertiliser and power production units as they would be forced to “curb” their output which will result in increase of these, affecting the farmers and commoners.
She said “artificial price fixation” method for domestic gas based on international trends was not acceptable and called for a change in order to protect the industries dependent on gas.
Experts had warned that the hike in the price of natural gas would lead to steep increase in the prices of power, fertiliser and transportation. Reliance Industries ltd has been clamouring for hiking the price of natural gas.