"It (the decision to raise gas prices for both public sector and private producers) has gone through a governance process. It was considered by the Cabinet twice and approved twice," Moily said. The new rates, likely to be at $8-8.4 against the current price of $4.2 a million British thermal units, are based on the recommendations of a committee appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the request of Moily's predecessor, S Jaipal Reddy.
This week, Kejriwal had ordered filing of a police complaint against Moily, Reliance Industries and Chairman Mukesh Ambani for allegedly creating an artificial shortage of gas in the country and raising prices.
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He said the FIR was "a very clear case they were exercising powers extra-constitutional and rather I would say it was contrary to constitutional provisions." Moily said the decision to allow public sector undertakings like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and RIL, a rate equivalent to the average price prevailing at international gas hubs and cost of importing the fuel into India in the past 12 months was based on the recommendation of a panel headed by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman, C Rangarajan.
‘No norms compromised in granting green nods’
Moily said he had followed all rules and did not compromise on any norm in granting forest and environment clearance to a host of projects since taking over one and a half months back. Moily has cleared projects of Rs 150,000 crore and is nearing clearing the backlog.
The key approvals accorded include one for Posco's $12-billion steel plant in Odisha.