Delhi NCR’s city gas distributor, Indraprastha Gas Ltd has hiked the selling price of CNG (for automobiles) and PNG (piped natural gas) by 45 paise a kg and 45 paise per standard cubic metre respectively in Delhi from May 18.

The price of CNG in the NCR region has been hiked by 50 paise per kg while PNG will increase by 50 paise per standard cubic metre. However, the highest slab of the PNG consumption will be abolished from May 18 and all domestic PNG consumers will be charged at a single rate applicable for their respective city.

Price of CNG in Delhi would now be ₹ 38 per kg while PNG will cost ₹ 25.35 per standard cubic metre from May 18.

An IGL spokesperson said that the hike has been necessitated due to the recent appreciation of the US dollar versus the rupee and the increase in operating expenses as a result of the increase in minimum wages announced by the Government. “The base price of natural gas being procured by IGL is dollar linked thereby making the entire input totally dependent on the rupee-dollar exchange rate,” the spokesperson said.

IGL added in a statement that the increase will have a negligible impact on the running cost of vehicles. “For autos, the increase would be mere 1 paise per km, for taxi it would be 2 paise per km and in case of buses, the increase would be just 13 paise per km. The CNG price being charged by IGL would still be among the lowest in the country,” IGL said.

“Even with the revised price, CNG would offer over 58 per cent savings towards the running cost when compared to petrol driven vehicles at the current level of prices in Delhi. When compared to diesel driven vehicles, the economics in favour of CNG at revised price would be over 27 per cent in Delhi,” the statement added.

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