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The Congress-led Central Government does not have the moral right to announce a policy dictating Natural Gas prices from April 2014 when it can remain in power only up to May 2014 before facing elections, said the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.
In a statement today, she said the Government should call off the pricing policy that is set to see natural gas price double to $8.4 a unit. It is only right that the new government that comes to power after the elections dictates the policy.
If the present Government continues with its stand, she expressed confidence that her party, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which will have a say in the new government, will take steps to change the policy, she said.
Hiking natural gas prices will affect the public as prices of fertilisers and electricity will go up. Farmers and the public will bear the burden of the hike in prices, Jayalalithaa said.
Referring to the Centre accepting the Rangarajan Committee recommendations on natural gas pricing, she said the committee led by C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, had suggested a complicated system based on international prices.
But natural gas is available domestically and prices have to be pegged based on domestic cost of production and on rupee basis rather than international prices and US dollar terms, she said.
Instead of penalising the conglomerate for producing lower-than-committed quantity of gas from the KG D6 gasfield, the new policy benefits it, Jayalalithaa said in the statement.
The Government which has been accused of ‘policy paralysis’ after it came to power in 2009, has now shifted to ‘policy overdose’ and has come out with a series of measures such as fuel price deregulation, linking rail freight to diesel price, direct transfer of subsidy, nutrient-based fertiliser subsidy, capping supply of subsidised cooking gas cylinder which either cut down on social security support for the poor or infringe on the authority of State Governments, she said.
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