In a fresh twist to the controversy surrounding the doubling of natural gas price by the Government, Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily has divested Joint Secretary Giridhar Aramane from his duty related to gas pricing.
The officer had backed the Finance Ministry’s suggestion that Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries ltd (RIl) should not be paid the new price of natural gas till it met the past supply shortfall.
Strongly protesting Moily’s “arbitrary action”, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta on Monday urged the Prime Minister to intervene to protect an honest officers like Aramane.
According to the CCEA’s decision, gas price was hiked to $8.4 per mmBtu (million metric British thermal units) from April 2014. However, the Finance Ministry told the Petroleum Ministry that RIl should be given the benefit of the new price only after it has met the mandatory production commitment for the past three years.
At present, there is around 80 per cent shortage in RIl production from the KG Basin. The RIl’s shortage comes to around 154 mmscmd (million standard cubic meter per day) as per the production-sharing contract with the Government. As per the
Finance Ministry’s directive RIl will get only $4.2 per unit till it supplies its backlog of 154mmscmd. Petroleum Secretary Vivek Rae and Joint Secretary Aramane backed the Finance Ministry’s stand, which is expected to result in a saving of around Rs 55,600 crore to the exchequer.
Moily, who has been accused by several Opposition parties of favouring RIl, overruled the officers and suggested that RIl should be given the new price of $8.4 from next year itself.
“Moily has also decided to get rid of inconvenient bureaucrats who are standing up to him. By this order the mala fide of the Petroleum Minister is completely established. Transferring the duties of concerned Joint Secretary, who is resisting the sinister attempts of the Petroleum Minister to give gigantic benefits to RIl, is nothing short of a fraud being played out by the Petroleum Minister,” said Dasgupta in a letter to Prime Minister, released to the media on Monday.