Gandhinagar, 17 August 2012

Gujarat is being provided about 27% of gas from the centre and the Congress led UPA Government at the Centre has allocated more gas to Gujarat than the BJP led NDA Government of the past, Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil said in a statement today.

“Gas is available with the Central Government as per the Administered Price Mechanism (APM), out of which a large share is given to Gujarat. In reality APM gas is provided by the Government of India to Delhi, Mumbai and Gujarat at the same rate of 4.2 US Dollars minus the royalty per MMBTU. There is not a variation of a single paisa in the rate of gas provided by the Government of India,” Gohil said adding that the Government of Gujarat has recently published an anonymous advertisement called ‘Congress’s slap in gas allocation to Gujarat’.

“As per the law, no advertisement can be published without a name, yet this absolute lie by the Chief Minister is being illegally published. Whenever the elections come near, the spirit of Goebbels residing inside the Gujarat Chief Minister becomes hyperactive and spreads many lies. In reality, the Government of Gujarat charges 15% VAT on Gas, while Governments in other states charge VAT between 0% to 4 % on Gas. As there is more VAT on Gas in Gujarat, costly gas is provided to Gujarati’s,” Gohil further said adding that “to hide this fact from the public, the Chief Minister of Gujarat has spent lakhs of rupees on these frivolous advertisements and slapped the people of Gujarat”.

Gohil said, “APM gas is available to the Government of India at 119.51 MMSCMD,Million Metric Standard Cubic Meter Per Day, against which the total requirement of the country is 226 MMSCMD. Hence the demand for Gas is more than the supply and as a result the government has to import gas from international market. From the 119.51 MMSCMD, amount of Gas available, the Government of India is providing maximum share of 26.7 MMSCMD to Gujarat. This being the truth, the anonymous advertisements displayed on Television by the Gujarat Government show as if the Central Government is not providing Gas to Gujarat at all and it is only giving a slap Gujarat. In fact Gujarat is getting more gas now than what it was getting during BJP Government’s rule at Centre. APM gas 4.4 MMBTU minus royalty, this rate is same for Gujarat, Mumbai and Delhi.”

Gohil said that gas should be supplied in the state at the rate which comes after mixing imported gas in low priced gas which is found in Gujarat. But the fact is that Gujarat levies highest 15% VAT on gas. On top of it the distribution is given to Modi’s favourite Adani and people have to pay more price. People of the State do not get gas at lower prices and recently CAG has found that gas is given at a price much lower than purchase price to Adani. People have to bear burden of corruption of crores of rupees of Adani, he added.

Gohil challenged Modi for a public debate on CAG report about providing gas to Adani at low prices, 26.7 MMSCMD Gas supplied to the State by the Central Government out of 119.51 MMSCMD of Gas and commission given to Modi’s favourite company. In Gujarat, he said, Public Sector Company GSPC gets gas from the Centre. Shortfall of gas is met by buying gas from international market. Gujarat ST buses use CNG gas from this stock. In a situation when one has to use something at two places one does not retain a middleman. However, Modi is using services of Adani as a middleman to provide GSPC gas to State Road Transport Corporation and thus giving Adani commission of millions of rupees.

A situation of drought has developed in Gujarat and the Chief Minister should declare a drought in the State and help people, which he is not doing. Farmers are committing suicide, livestock is starving, Narmada water is flowing into the sea. Instead of diverting this water to farms or available ponds and lakes or rivers of North Gujarat and Kutch, the Chief Minister is keeping this water in Sabarmati River and enjoying rides on motor boats, he said. The Chief Minister is putting false allegations on the Central Government to spread his lies. The cost of these false and anonymous advertisements on TV should be borne by BJP; instead lakhs of rupees are spent from the corpus of the State Government to spread these lies, which is illegal. This is the money of people of Gujarat.