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Piped gas will be costlier with new slab

MGL's restructuring of consumption will inflate consumers' cooking gas bill.

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City domestic piped natural gas (PNG) distributor Maharashtra Gas (MGL) on Friday revised its domestic PNG slab — a move that will force approximately 25,000 households to keep a check on their usage. The revised slab rate came into effect on Saturday, said an MGL official.

In Navi Mumbai, around 25,000 households have piped natural gas (PNG) connections, which is supplied by MGL — a joint venture between GAIL, BG Group, and Government of Maharashtra. “The move, which came into effect from Friday midnight, was necessitated in order to recover part of increase in overall input costs and rupee depreciation against US dollar,” an MGL statement said.

According to an MGL official, the company has not increased the price of PNG even though the procurement of gas has become costly because of depreciation in rupee in the international market. The official assured that the move would also prevent people from wasting gas unnecessarily while cooking.

The company is currently using three slabs for domestic consumers. In the first slab, as per revised rates, the consumers will have to use around 37.5 per cent less PNG for the same bill amount. Earlier, in the first slab the consumers could use up to 0.8 standard cubic metre per day (SCMD) PNG which has been decreased to 0.5 SCMD. An MGL official said the average use of PNG in society or household is around 0.5 SCMD for a four-member family. Maximum number of household consumers fall in the first slab, and hence the initiative will prevent unnecessary wastage of PNG to some extent.

The company had increased the price of PNG towards the end of June by Rs 2.19 per SCM. “The price was increased because of continuous fall in rupee,” said an MGL official.

Suman Jha, a housewife from Vashi said, “We cannot control the use of cooking gas. This will force us to cook less and eat less.” Jha added, “As per the revised slabs we will have to cook around 40 per cent less food.”

Mansi Roy, another consumer, claimed the central government is responsible for the rise in all essential commodities including PNG.

The other two slabs have also been revised. The second slab and third have been decreased by 25 per cent.

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