CNG price in Ahmedabad now double than Mumbai's

CNG price in Ahmedabad is now almost double that in Mumbai, and 40 – 50% costlier than in a number of other cities.

With the latest hike of Rs2, which came into effect from Thursday, CNG price in Ahmedabad, and also Vadodara, is now Rs65.80 per kg. CNG price is the highest in these two cities. As against this, CNG in Mumbai costs almost half at Rs33.95 a kg.

In Delhi, which is another big market, Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) sells CNG at Rs39.90/kg. The price varies by a rupee or two in Noida and other places in the National Capital Region (NCR) due to slight difference in state levies.
In Lucknow, capital of the most populous state Uttar Pradesh, the price of CNG is Rs42.14 per kg. In Pune, CNG is priced at Rs43.50 a kg, i.e. around 35% lower than in Ahmedabad.

In Agra, CNG is sold at Rs50.23 per kg, while in Indore and Hyderabad CNG is priced almost a quarter lower than in Ahmedabad at Rs52 per kg.
Closer to home, GSPC Gas, the largest CGD company in the country in terms of gas volumes, is selling CNG at Rs62.15/kg across various parts of the state.

Sabarmati Gas, which supplies gas in Gandhinagar, Mehsana and Sabarkantha, sells CNG at Rs63.80/kg. However, it is also likely to revise its price soon on the back of GSPC Gas and Adani Gas.

In Surat, which is the most matured gas market in the country, CNG costs Rs61per kg, almost Rs5 lower than in Ahmedabad. This gap was almost Rs10 till Friday when Gujarat Gas, which supplies gas in south Gujarat, followed other city gas distribution companies, and hiked CNG price by Rs4.70 per kg
 “Absence of allocation of domestic gas to companies like GSPC Gas and Adani Gas, which makes them entirely dependent on imported gas, is the reason for the higher gas prices. In cities like Mumbai and Delhi, which have domestic allocation, gas prices are much lower. The same is the case in Surat to some extent,” said an industry expert.

For the record, domestic gas is priced at $ 4.2 to $ 5.7 per Million Metric British Thermal Units (mmbtu), as against R-LNG (re-gasified liquefied natural gas) – imported gas in common parlance — which costs anywhere from $12 to 17 per mmbtu.

On its part, the state government says that it has been pressing the Centre for allocation of domestic gas to CGDs in the state for some time now, but its pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

 “Gas prices in the state can come down by as much as 30% if CGDs in Gujarat are allocated domestic gas,” energy minister Saurabh Patel has said on a number of occasions.

However, what the government doesn’t say is that it levies 15% VAT on gas sales, which is the highest in the country. The state government earned Rs483 crore as VAT on gas sales in 2011, which doubled to Rs941 crore in 2012. With the recent increases in gas prices, the government’s earnings too are expected to shoot up.