CNG costlier by ₹4 in Mumbai, third hike in April

MUMBAI: The prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in the city will increase by ₹4, effective Friday midnight

MUMBAI: The prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in the city will increase by ₹4, effective Friday midnight. This will be the third hike by Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) in the month of April. Subsequent to this, the revised rate for CNG will be ₹76/kg. There will be no increase in the price of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) in Mumbai. Earlier, CNG was priced at ₹72/kg, while domestic PNG is presently available at ₹45.50/Standard Cubic Meter (SCM).

Thane, India - April 13, 2022: A worker fills CNG gas in a car even as the prices has increased by Rs.5 at a CNG Gas Station, Kapurbawdi, in Thane, Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, April 13, 2022. (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

A statement from Mahanagar Gas Limited read, “The cost of regasified Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which is being blended to offset the shortfall in the availability of domestic gas for CNG and domestic Piped Natural Gas (PNG) segments, are at historically high levels. This combination has resulted in a significant increase in the cost of gas being procured by MGL. Being a customer-focused company, MGL has always tried to maintain price stability for its customers. However, since the increase in input gas price is significantly high, MGL has decided to progressively recover such increased gas cost.”

Auto rickshaw unions have stated that they will protest outside the MGL on May 17 on the hike. “CNG was forced on us. We should be given the gas at a local rate and not at an international price. We will be protesting outside the MGL office on May 17. Our demands are simple: we should be given CNG at the domestic rate,” said Shashank Rao, president, Mumbai AutorickshawMen’s Union.

Taxi unions have stated that they will join the protest called by the autorickshaw union and have stated they have no choice else than to shut down their taxis. “We have no choice left with us with the constant increase in prices of CNG. We will have to ask the taxi drivers to close operations as we cannot afford CNG anymore. We will join the protest with the autorickshaw drivers,” said AL Quadros, general secretary, Mumbai TaxiMen’s Union.