Gas pricing in India, disparity with the global standards and conflicts

Abstract

Gas is a natural resource which comes under the purview of the governments and the royalty generated by it is useful for both state and the central governments. Over the years, fuel subsidies have been rising to a tremendous extent thereby putting huge financial strain on the budget. The debate on pricing of gas is raging, despite the fact that Expert Committee (Chairman: Dr. C. Rangarajan) had examined the complete issue in detail. Being a natural resource, the consumption, pricing practices and subsidies provided on gas not only impact our current taxpayers but also affect the intergenerational taxpayers who are unable to represent themselves at the current juncture. In view of the whole political-economic debate going on in the country right now and given the importance of it, there is a need to analyse the current gas pricing practices and the subsidy structure of gas in India, which is the aim of this study.