Mumbai: Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) on Monday hiked the prices of compressed natural gas (CNG) by ₹2.66/kg and domestic piped natural gas (PNG) by ₹1.89/standard cubic metre (SCM). The new rates will come into effect from Tuesday.
The CNG in the city now will be ₹49.61/kg in place of ₹46.17/kg. The new rates of domestic PNG will be ₹29.40/SCM for slab 1 and ₹35/SCM for slab 2. The immediate impact will be on rickshaw and taxi drivers. There are 1.6 lakh rickshaws and around 50,000 taxis, majority of whom are run on CNG. According to MGL, the price rise would have a marginal impact on the running costs of rickshaws and taxis, increasing it by ₹0.10 per km and ₹0.13 per km.
But, A.L. Quadros of Mumbai Taximen’s Union said it is far from the truth and the running cost of taxis has increased by ₹2 per km in 2018. “They have hiked the rates for the third time this year. We will be pushing more aggressively for our demand to increase the base fare from ₹22 to ₹25.”
Shashank Rao, leader of Mumbai Autorickshawmen’s Union, said they too will be pressing for a fare hike which has been pending for two years. “We want the government to implement the Hakim Commitee report and increase the minimum fare for rickshaws to ₹21 and the per km rate from ₹12 to ₹14.”
The price increase will also impact the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport who has 1,977 buses running on CNG.
According to a statement by MGL, one of the reasons behind the fare hike was the significant dollar appreciation against the rupee. The rupee on Monday reached a two-week low of ₹72.91 against the dollar.