JOIN USAmid Aam Aadmi Party's mounting criticism of the government’s decision to nearly double natural gas prices from April this year, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said people who are opposing the decision do not know the basics of economics.
“The argument that marginal cost of producing one unit is $1 and why it should be priced at over $8 should be rejected. It betrays complete ignorance of economics,” the finance minister told a private news channel. Chidambaram said that the price of natural gas in the global market was $14 per barrel in case India were to import gas in absence of domestic exploration.
“The choice today is between buying one unit of gas at $14 and giving the producer an $8 price,” he said. The minister had also called the registration of FIR against Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, petroleum minister Veerappa Moily and others as “laughable”.
The FIR was registered earlier this month after Kejriwal had charged that the gas prices were being inflated to benefit Ambani, whose company produced gas from D-6 block off the eastern coast. Chidambaram rubbished the claim saying if that were the case, the state-run ONGC was going to be the biggest beneficiary of the gas price hike.