SC to hear petition against gas price hike today

The Supreme Court will hear two petitions challenging the Cabinet decision to hike the price of natural gas produced in the country.

The government had recently brought in a new formula to pay gas producers such as Reliance Industries, as advised by the C Rangarajan panel. The new gas pricing mechanism comes into effect from April 1 this year and is expected to about double the prices from the current USD 4.2 per unit.

The two petitions have been filed by senior CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta and an NGO, Common Cause, whose member is Aam Aadmi Party ideologue Prashant Bhushan.

The issue of gas price has taken a political turn with Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal making headlines regularly, accusing the government of giving in to corporate interests and hiking the price it pays to contractors for producing gas.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is a key producer of natural gas in the country and operates in the resource-rich Krishna Godavari basin off the Andhra Pradesh Coast.

During the short-lived Kejriwal government, an FIR was filed against Mukesh Ambani, former oil minister Murli Deora and incumbent oil minister Veerappa Moily.