To accelerate the development of the natural gas infrastructure and usher rapid growth of natural gas market in the country, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has brought out amendments in its three regulations namely Natural Gas Pipeline Tariff, Authorisation and Capacity Regulations. These amendments will act as stepping stone for implementation of Unified Tariff regulations which will be effective from 1st April 2023. To address the settlement issues for implementation of Unified tariff, industry committee has been constituted.
The objective of these changes is to provide access of natural gas in the far-flung areas at the competitive and affordable rates to achieve the long-cherished objective of one nation one grid and one tariff.
To simplify the implementation of unified tariff, entity level Integrated natural gas pipeline tariff has been introduced in the said regulations which will act as a building block for unified tariff at national level. Further to protect the overall interest of consumers in different regions number of unified tariff zones have been increased from two to three.
In addition, other amendments like allowing unaccounted gas, moratorium period, ramp up in capacity, etc., have been incorporated.