GAIL has directed Green Gas Limited, the authorised company to supply CNG in Lucknow, to set up CNG stations

on all highways connecting with the capital. Accordingly, stations would be built in Raebareli Road, Hardoi Road, Kanpur Road, Faizabad Road, Sultanpur Road and Sitapur Road. On Raebareli Road, station would be set up near PGI, near Dubagga on Hardoi Road, at Banthra on Kanpur Road, near Awadh Vihar Yojna on Sultanpur Road and near Barabanki on Faizabad Road. After Gujarat High Court's order to make CNG rates equivalent all across states, GAIL and the Centre have decided to appeal to the court to reconsider its decision as the oil companies say that since VAT is high in Uttar Pradesh, the CNG rates in UP, after increase the price and including the tax would surpass diesel rate. They have therefore appealed to the principal secretary of CM to reduce VAT on CNG. The Bombay High court on Wednesday restrained the Union of India from implementing any order it may pass to cut the subsidised Administered Price Mechanism (APM) gas supply to Mahanagar Gas Limited till December 19. The Bombay High Court on Monday asked the Union of India whether it plans to cut the Administered Price Mechanism (APM) gas supply of MGL. The Bombay high Court on Monday asked Mahanagar Gas Limited whether it plans to hike the price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in the state

CSE slams recent CNG price hike, says destroying price advantage of CNG
LUCKNOW: Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has slammed the recent hike in CNG prices, a fuel which drives public transport. This has almost destroyed the price advantage that CNG had over diesel, said Sunita Narain, director general, CSE. This makes the price differential between a greener and a polluting fuel much closer removing the advantage of running a vehicle on cleaner fuel, say CSE researchers. It is ironic, they point out, that while the fuel tax differential has been officially justified in the name of agriculture and freight, rich car owners have benefited more from it. Cars have already become the second biggest user of diesel and beneficiaries of the official fuel tax policy. The government's own experts have recommended additional taxes on diesel cars to neutralise the effect of low-tax diesel. But the government has yet to muster the courage to impose these taxes. Estimates show that the government incurs huge revenue losses, as it earns much less from excise on a litre of diesel used by cars, as opposed to that on petrol. These losses will increase with the growing numbers of diesel cars. At the same time, there is underrecovery of costs in case of diesel - Rs 10.48 per litre of diesel. "This is leading to gross misuse of the poor persons' fuel by rich car owners, massive revenue losses for the government, and serious damage to public health. The government's move to raise the CNG prices will incite more dieselisation," said Narain. The government does not have a direct fiscal policy to promote the CNG programme in cities. In fact, the central excise duty has been rationalised to be uniform for all vehicles irrespective of the fuel they use, she complained.

In anticipation of the increase in CNG prices due to price deregulation, the Supreme Court had directed the Union government in 2002 to devise a favourable taxation policy for natural gas in the interest of public health. However, a composite policy has not been put in place yet. CSE researchers have called upon ministry of petroleum and natural gas for a relook at the CNG price hike, keeping into account the environmental factors. "Since the environment minister is also the petroleum minister, there is an opportunity to give primacy to the benefits of CNG and keep it competitive vis-a-vis diesel - but the minister seems to mum on this aspect," said CSE.

CNG price hike hits commuters badly

KANPUR: The record hike of Rs 14 in compressed natural gas (CNG) price had added to the woes of commuters. The tempo and auto drivers have increased the fares due to CNG hike which is troubling the commuters. On some routes, the tempo drivers have nearly doubled the fare which had suddenly added to the burden. Even the buses owners are charging high. The long distance travellers are worst sufferers are they are forced to pay the hiked sum. Vishwajeet Singh, a student travels by a bus from Mandhana to Zareeb Chauki daily. He used to pay Rs 10 earlier for this distance while he paid Rs 20 to travel to Zareb Chauki on Friday after the increased bus fare. "Very few buses are running on the route and most of them are packed. I have no alternative option but to pay increased fare," he said. The sudden hike is going to disturb the budget of common man, especially those who are commuting long distances through buses and tempos. Kidwainagar to Shyamnagar, Mandhana to Ramadevi, Mandhana to IIT and Kidwainagar to Rawatpur are some of the routes where the commuters are facing difficulties. The bus drivers and tempo drivers, who used to charge Rs 3 as minimum charges are now taking Rs 5 as minimum fare. From Mandhana to Ramadevi, the earlier fare was Rs 18. Now, they are charging Rs 25. From Mandhana to Tatmill, the fare was Rs 15. Now, it has gone up to Rs 22. From Mandhana to Kalyanpur the fare has been hiked from Rs 5 to Rs 10. Tempos used to charge Rs 8 from Shyam Nagar to Kidwai Nagar. Now they have increased the fare to Rs 10 after CNG price hike. The autos are charging Rs 5 to cover the distance of two kilometres from Bypass to Tatmill under the hiked prices. "There is no uniformity in fare as each driver charges differently. When we raise objections, they start arguing," said a commuter.

The problem persisted during peak hours and mostly affected the office-goers and students. The bus, tempo and auto-rickshaw drivers defended themselves by claiming that the hike in CNG prices had left with no option. An auto-driver said, "We are already incurring losses in the operational cost of autos. Another hike in CNG within a month has given a huge setback to our finances. It would hit our profit margins as well. We are forced to charge more fare." BC Dwivedi, president of Mahanagar Bus Sewa Route No 2 said that the exact hike in fare rates has not yet decided by the association. Hence, the bus drivers who are charging unnecessary fare will be checked. But the locals must be ready for the hike in public conveyance as the government had drastically hiked the CNG price. Assistant regional transport officer (ARTO administration) SK Singh said that the tempos and buses cannot increase the fare legally. But it is true that running public vehicles on old fare is tough. The RTO will decide the new fares soon. Those charging more will be checked, he added.

SC upholds HC order on CNG to Gujarat under APM

A bench of Justice H L Dattu and Justice M I Iqbal on Monday upheld Gujarat high court's order passed last year The Supreme Court on Monday has directed the Union government to provide compressed natural gas (CNG) toGujarat on the same rate as it is given to Delhi and Mumbai. A bench of Justice H L Dattu and Justice M I Iqbal on Monday upheld Gujarat high courts order passed last year that the Centre should provide CNG to Gujarat at the price it supplies to Delhi and Mumbai, and dismissed the appeal filed by the Union government. It further directed that at the same time, the state government will have to pass necessary laws to make it compulsory for all four wheelers registered in Gujarat to covert to natural gas. The Gujarat high court on July 25, 2012 had asked the Centre to supply gas to Ahmedabad for domestic and vehicular under the administered price mechanism (APM). The order was pronounced based on a public interest litigation (PIL). The Central government had appealed against this decision before Apex Court, which was dismissed today. In the order passed last year, the High Court had given one years time to the state government to make legislation thereby imposing stringent restrictions to reduce pollution by levels of emission to the minimum.

Hailing the SC judgement Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said the court has given this judgment during a hearing on a public interest litigation regarding CNG prices in Gujarat. Patel termed the verdict as Gujarats victory against the Centres injustice towards the state. He demanded to implement the courts decision with immediate effect so that over 0.24 million vehicle owners of Gujarat can get CNG on the lower rates. This will ease lives of large number of rickshaw drives and vehicle owners in present scenario of heavy price-rise, he added. Patel termed the verdict as Gujarats victory against the Centres injustice towards the state. He demanded to implement the courts decision with immediate effect so that over 0.24 million vehicle owners of Gujarat can get CNG on the lower rates. This will ease the lives of large number of rickshaw drives and vehicle owners in the present scenario of heavy price-rise, he added. He further added that the verdict has exposed the centers policy of favoritism in CNG allocation. "The apex court has clearly said the center cannot discriminate between two states while allocating the gas. This has uncovered centers step-motherly treatment towards Gujarat and its double-standards", Patel said. "Even after the Gujarat High courts order to center, directing it to give CNG to Gujarat on the same rates as other states, the union ministers were harping blatant lies that there was no injustice to Gujarat. The supreme courts verdict makes it clear that what they were saying was utter lie," he stated in an official statement.

The Bombay HC on Monday said that it will have to consider whether government's decision to cut the supply of subsidised natural gas to Mumbai's transport and domestic sector was contrary to a 2002 Supreme Court order
TOI 23 Dec 2013,21:37 IST

The Bombay HC on Monday extended its order restraining the Centre from implementing any order it may pass to cut the subsidised gas supply to Mahanagar Gas Limited till January 9, 2014.

CNG rate increase due to court orders: IGL

NEW DELHI: A day after hiking CNG price by a steep Rs 4.50 per kg, Indraprastha Gas Ltd on Friday said the rate increase were forced by court orders that led to cut in allocation of cheaper domestic natural gas. Following a Gujarat high court order, the government ordered all of domestically available natural gas for city gas projects to be equitably distributed among all the companies in the country than convert the fuel into compressed natural gas (CNG) for sale to automobiles. Prior to this, cheaper domestic gas was largely available to firms retailing CNG in Delhi and Mumbai. Keeping in view the limited domestic availability, the government ordered that about 80 per cent of the requirement of CNG retailers be met from cheaper domestic gas and the

rest to be imported. For IGL, which is the sole retailer of CNG in national capital, the order would not have made a big difference as domestic gas made up for 77-80 per cent of its requirement. But for Mahanagar Gas Ltd, which solely relies on domestic gas for CNG retailing in Mumbai, the cut would have meant a Rs 16 per kg increase in CNG price in the city because of costlier imported LNG coming in to replace the cut in allocation. With such a steep hike in price on horizon, Mumbai's auto rickshaw owners association approached Maharashtra high court and got a stay on implementation of the order in the state. "This essentially meant that our APM (cheaper domestic) gas supply was cut to implement the uniform allocation order (of Gujarat High Court that was also upheld up the Supreme Court),"IGL managing director Narendra Kumar told PTI. IGL's APM gas allocation was reduced from 23,42,000 cubic meters per day to 22,28,000 cubic meters a day. "APM gas makes up for only 72 per cent of our requirement," he said. He said the shortfall was made good by increased buying of imported LNG which has led to rise in gas cost by 13 per cent. "We have not passed on the entire increase to customers. Some 20 per cent of the increase that was due has been absorbed by us," he said. Kumar said the order cutting the gas supply was effective on December 25 and IGL implemented the changes in rates the next day. "Our gas allocation has been cut by 5 per cent which has led to the price hike," he added. Besides CNG, cooking gas piped to kitchens has also been increased by Rs 2 per kg. CNG now costs Rs 50.10 per kg in Delhi and Rs 56.70 per kg in Noida, Greater Noida & Ghaziabad from midnight tonight. The price of piped natural gas (PNG) to the households in Delhi is being revised from Rs 27.50 per standard cubic metre to Rs 29.50 per scm up to consumption of 30 scm in two months. Beyond consumption of 30 scm in two months, the applicable rate in Delhi would be Rs 52 per scm. Due to differential tax structure in the state of Uttar Pradesh, the applicable price of domesticPNG to households in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad would be Rs. 31 per

scm up to consumption of 30 scm in two months, which has been increased from existing Rs 29 per scm. Beyond consumption of 30 scm in two months, the rate applicable in these cities would be Rs 54 per scm. CNG price was last revised in September 8 when it was hiked by a steep Rs 3.70 per kg. Price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) sold to automobiles in the national capital had then increased from Rs 41.90 to Rs 45.60 per kg. Also at that time, the price of piped cooking gas, called PNG for households, had been hiked from Rs 24.50 per scm to Rs 27.50 per scm. IGL, the sole retailer of CNG and PNG in Delhi, said the increase was primarily due to increase in input cost as a result of reallocation of domestically produced gas quantities by the government for all City Gas Distribution Companies across the country. "There has been a reduction in allocation of APM gas to us, which is forcing us to source more quantity of market priced imported R-LNG, whose prices are currently on an upswing. This has affected our overall input cost by over 13 per cent". "In addition, there has also been an increase in the operating expenses including increase in minimum wages announced by the government with effect from October 2013," IGL had said statement yesterday. "In terms of volume, there has been nearly 5 per cent decrease in the overall quantity of domestic gas allocated to IGL for Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad. "The reduction in allocation as well as increase in demand is forcing IGL to source much higher priced imported R-LNG. "The prices of R-LNG have been on the rise recently and therefore, new R-LNG quantities are available in the market at much higher prices than the existing ones," it said. IGL however, said the increase would not have a major impact on the per km running cost of vehicles. For autos, the increase would be 13 paisa per km, for taxi it would be 22 paisa per km and in case of buses, the increase would be Rs 1.30 per km, which translates to just over two paisa per passenger-km.