New Delhi, May 20 (Inditop.com) Power tariffs will rise by Re.1 per unit after the government decision to hike prices of natural gas, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said here Thursday.
“The power tariff would go up. We have not worked out the details, but it is likely to be about Re.1 per unit,” Shinde told reporters on the sidelines of an event on power management technologies.
The cabinet Wednesday doubled the rate at which natural gas is marketed by two state-owned upstream oil companies, ONGC and Oil India. As a result, the price of compressed natural gas (CNG) is expected to rise by 20 percent.
Power and fertiliser units, and city-based gas projects will get gas at higher prices and are likely to pass on the burden to the consumers.
The new price of Rs.6,818 mscm brings it close to the Rs.7,500 mscm ($4.2 mmbtu) that the government has fixed for natural gas from the Reliance Industries-operated Krishna-Godavari basin.
Gas was earlier supplied at Rs.3,200 mscm to such units.
