HC restrains GAIL from recovering local firms' dues

In a move that has come as a major relief to the foundry and glass industries of Agra and Firozabad, the Allahabad Bench of the UP High Court has stayed the recovery of several crores of dues from local industrialists by GAIL under the minimum guarantee option (MGO).

According to Anil Kumar Verma, president, National Chamber of Industries and Commerce (NCIC), UP, the high court's decision was in response to a writ jointly filed by the NCIC and Sahaj Sarchem Pvt Ltd.

Talking to Business Standard, Verma said the several crores worth of bills sent by GAIL to the industrialists of Agra and Firozabad for under-consumption of gas had brought the entire industrial sector of both these towns to a standstill.

When all requests to GAIL to take back these bills failed, the NCIC was forced to resort to legal aid against this decision.

He said in an interim order passed by the high court, the court had restricted GAIL from recovering the billed amounts from the industrialists of Agra and Firozabad while giving the industrialists a time of four weeks to place their case before the Union minister for petroleum and seek his intervention.

Verma said the court order had come as a big relief to the industries of the two towns and the NCIC had written to the general manager, GAIL, Agra, to immediately stop harassing the industrialists for the recovery of the disputed bills as the matter was subjudice.