Vikrant Shekhawat : Oct 02, 2021, 11:52 AM
New Delhi: The price of compressed natural gas (CNG) in Delhi-NCR has been hiked by Rs 2.28 per kg, distribution company Indraprastha Gas Ltd (IGL) announced on October 1. This comes a day after the Centre increased the rate of domestic natural gas by 62 percent.The new per kg cost of CNG in Delhi, which will come into effect from 6 am on October 2, is Rs 47.48, IGL said.In Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, the rate has been increased to Rs 53.45 per kg, marking a hike of Rs 2.55 above the current price.As per the city-wise price list issued by IGL, CNG would charged as follows: Rs 55.81 per kg in Gurugram; Rs 56.50 in Rewari; Rs 54.70 in Karnal and Kaithal; Rs 60.71 in Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Shamli; Rs 63.97 in Kanpur, Fatehpur and Hamirpur; and Rs 62.41 per kg in Ajmer.Apart from CNG, the rate of piped natural gas (PNG) has also been increased.In Delhi, the PNG rate has been hiked by Rs 2.10 per cubic metre to Rs 33.01 per scm, whereas, the cost of piped cooking gas in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad would be Rs 32.86 per scm.On September 30, a notification issued by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), an arm of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, stated that the price of domestically produced natural gas would be $2.90 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022.This marked a 62 percent hike above the existing gas price, which was $1.79 per mmBtu.Natural gas is the raw material that is converted into CNG for use in automobiles as fuel or piped to household kitchens for cooking purposes.Natural gas prices affect the earnings of state-run producers such as Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd and Oil India Ltd.ICICI Securities in its report in September had said that CNG and piped cooking gas prices in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai may be hiked by 10-11 percent from October as the government-dictated gas price is set to rise by about 76 percent.