After nearly five hours of discussion on issues facing energy sector on Friday, Modi again called a meeting today with Pradhan where Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also joined.
Sources said at the Friday meeting the gas price revision was flagged as one of the immediate decisions that the new government needs to take to revive investor interest in the stagnant oil and gas sector.
While the new government is keen to take an early decision on the issue, it may be looking at moderating the proposed increase - from current USD 4.2 per million British thermal unit to USD 8.4, they said adding a new rate may be announced as early as this week.
Given that inflation is already high and recent rise in food prices in anticipation of below-normal monsoon will add to it, the new government is debating if gas rates should be revised now and add further to inflation, they said.
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Every dollar increase in gas price will lead to Rs 1,370 per ton rise in urea production cost and 45 paise per unit increase in electricity tariff. Besides, it will lead to a minimum of Rs 2.81 per kg increase in CNG price and Rs 1.89 per standard cubic meter hike in piped cooking gas.
The Rangarajan formula calls for pricing rates at an average cost of importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) into India and rates prevailing on international hubs in US and UK as well as price of gas imported into Japan.
Sources said there is a thought that the high priced Japanese imports, which have no relevance to India, should be excluded from the formula to bring down the gas price from USD 8.4 as arrived at using Rangarajan formula, to about USD 7-7.5.
If this option is accepted, the new rate will apply to only 15 per cent of the domestic production (basically only KG-D6 of RIL), sources said.