Govt constitutes EGoM under Pranab

The Union government has constituted an empowered group of ministers on the Krishna-Godavari basin gas utilisation, petroleum minister Murli Deora said on Tuesday, without giving any detail. It will be chaired by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Besides Mukherjee and Deora, the EGoM would have power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, fertiliser minister M K Alagiri, law minister Veerappa Moily and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

When the proposal to constitute an EGoM on KG gas was being considered, Deora had officially asked the Prime Minister to confine its role to commercial utilisation of the gas and not go into pricing, as the latter had already been decided by an earlier EGoM for a five-year period. The PM's Office had then felt the committee could look at pricing, too.

Reliance Industries Ltd, which is operating the KG gas find after discovering it, is restricting gas output to 40 million cubic meters per day, despite having the capacity to produce 65 mscmd, since the government has yet to decide new buyers after the initial allocations.

Image: Pranab Mukherjee