After nearly half a dozen times of hikes, the city gas utility Mahanagar Gas announced a reduction of ₹2.50 per kilogram to ₹87 a kg in the price of compressed natural gas (CNG), effective from Wednesday. Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL), however, left the price of cooking gas PNG unchanged.
Since April 6, the price of CNG had gone up by ₹29.50 per kilogram and that of piped natural gas (PNG) for residential use by ₹18.50 at ₹54. CNG price on November 4, 2022 had peaked at ₹89.50 per kilogram and that of PNG at ₹54 a kg.
The company said that the marginal cut in prices is in anticipation of the increased allocation of domestically-produced natural gas from high pressure-high temperature areas to distribution entities by the oil ministry, which lowers its input gas cost.
After this reduction, the retail price of the fuel will come down to ₹87 per kg in and around Mumbai, MGL said in a statement.
This is the first price reduction since the second week of April 2022 when it had announced a price reduction following the massive cut in VAT on the fuel by the state government from 13.5% to just 3%.
But on the same day, the Centre more than doubled the prices at source, leading to a massive increase by the utility from the second week of April. Since then, it has been jacking up prices regularly.
On April 1, 2022 the price of CNG was reduced by ₹6/kg to ₹60 per kg, and PNG by ₹3.50 to 36 per scm (standard cubic metre), following the reduction in Value Added Tax (VAT).
