Questioning the spread of piped natural gas supply in the affluent areas of cities only, Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan today asked why should the fuel that was cheaper than domestic LPG be supplied only to the rich.
City gas supply companies like Indraprastha Gas Ltd (in Delhi) and Mahanagar Gas Ltd (in Mumbai) have laid pipelines to supply gas for domestic cooking purposes mostly in affluent areas, while poor households are largely unconnected.
“Piped gas is cheaper than LPG (and) only the rich are getting piped gas,” he said at a Ficci conference here, while describing the present city gas distribution pattern as “skewed”.
Indraprastha Gas Ltd supplies piped natural gas to households in Delhi at Rs 16.85 per cubic metre or Rs 21.90 per kg. In comparison, a 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder costs Rs 345.35 (Rs 24.32 per kg) after subsidy.
“Whether this (pattern) is sustainable as public policy is a matter of debate,” he said, adding the government was committed to spreading city gas distribution network in all major towns of the country.
Most city gas projects get domestic gas at $4.2 per mBtu — half the rate at which imported LNG is supplied. City gas projects, he said, should be more imported-LNG-based to bring parity between the gas users and liquid fuel consumers.