CNG prices hiked 4 percent in NCT areas

The price of compressed natural gas (CNG) in Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad will go up from midnight Friday.

Announcing a 4 percent hike, public sector Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) said the new consumer price of CNG would be Rs.39.90 a kg in Delhi, and Rs.45.10 in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad.

IGL said it raised the price due to increased input costs and related taxes.

"There has been a complete stoppage of KG D-6 (gas fields in Andhra Pradesh operated by Reliance Industries-led consortium) supplies to IGL since 2011. Any additional CNG demand has to be met through costly R-LNG (liquefied natural gas), which is available in the market at well over three times the cost of domestic gas supplies under APM (administered price mechanism)," said IGL in a release.

The proportion of costly imported R-LNG to domestic gas in the overall pool of natural gas being procured for supply as CNG is constantly on the rise and has already crossed 25 percent.

IGL, however, said the increase would have minor impact on the per km running cost of vehicles.  "For autos, the increase would be 4 paise per km, for taxis it would be 7 paise per km and in case of buses, the increase would be 45 paise per km, which translates to less than one paisa per passenger km."