Alleging that Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily is out to favour Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries limited (RIl) by trying to increase the price of gas from KG Basin, the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Thursday sought the Prime Minister’s immediate intervention in the matter.
Addressing the media in the Capital, CPI National Secretary Gurudas Dasgupta demanded Moily’s resignation for “facilitating” Mukesh Ambani in looting national assets by ignoring suggestions of the Fertilizer and Power Ministries against increasing the price of gas.
Producing documents and Cabinet notes, the veteran CPI leader alleged that certain Cabinet Ministers, led by Moily, were trying to increase the price of natural gas from $4.2 per mmbtu to $14 per mmbtu (Million Metric British Thermal Units), as desired by Mukesh Ambani’s RIl.
In his detailed letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which was released to the media, Dasgupta pointed out that disregarding the objections of the two Ministries of Fertiliser and Power would prove disaster. He said all the suggestions of the Finance Ministry, the Planning Commission and even the recommendation of the Rangarajan Committee should be discarded in the interest of the nation.
“This is a gigantic scam that is in the process of being enacted through the generous assistance of the Petroleum Ministry. This is loot of the country’s natural resources which will cause deepest anger in our people. This is the biggest crime if it is allowed to happen,” the CPI leader stated in his letter to the PM seeking a pre-emptive action for the sake of the country.
Dasgupta pointed out that even the Rangarajan Committee, comprising eminent personalities appointed by the PM, had recommended the price of the natural gas to be “at least eight dollars per mmbtu. “This figure is a very huge one and cannot be acceptable. The Power Ministry had already said that at this price, power generation would not be possible and would lead to increase in power tariff in the country,” he said.
Dasgupta pointed out that Fertiliser Ministry’s suggestion would help decrease the price of the gas. But a big lobby is working for Reliance to ignore this detailed formula, he claimed.
“One would have expected that Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission will balance the interest of the users and the producers by suitable modulating the Rangarajan Committee’s formula downward. However, to my utter dismay, they have actually suggested formulations that are closer to the demand of RIl and so far, more than what has been envisaged by the Ranagarajan Committee,” Dasgupta pointed out to the Prime Minister in the letter.
He blamed Planning Commission for recommending the Government to switch to international pricing formula “as desired by Mukesh Ambani.” The veteran CPI leader said the things were going in a way to provide huge benefits to RIl in collusion with the Petroleum Minister Moily.
“It is regrettable that the Petroleum Ministry is just copying and pasting the suggestions of Reliance. If the demand of Reliance to increase the gas price from 4.2 dollars to 14 dollars is accepted, in five years the public exchequer would suffer a subsidy of Rs 1,80,000 crore and Reliance will pocket an additional profit of Rs.1,62,000 crore,” said Dasgupta, accusing the Petroleum, Finance Ministries and Planning Commission for facilitating the demands of RIl.