The Hindu : Front Page : Gas pipeline: no accord yet on transit fee

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 31, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Gas pipeline: no accord yet on transit fee

Special Correspondent

Issue figures at Working Group meet

India, Pakistan disagree on Iran demand
Total price will depend on transportation cost

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday said there was no agreement yet on the transit fees payable to Pakistan for the passage of natural gas through that country.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora said the issue was discussed during the fifth India-Pakistan Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting in June.

While it was agreed upon that the charge should be based on the cost of service to be achieved through international competitive bidding, there was no agreement.

Two JWGs set up

India had been pursuing the import of natural gas from Iran through the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. For this, two secretary-level joint working grpups had been set up with Pakistan and Iran.

Three meetings held

Three meetings of the India-Iran Special JWG were held while the India-Pakistan JWG had met five times.

The tripartite JWG of Iran, Pakistan and India was also functional and had met 6 times.

At the fourth tripartite meeting held in Tehran on January 24 and 25, a formula regarding the pricing of gas on the Iran-Pakistan border was agreed upon between the Iran and Pakistan sides, subject to approval from their governments.

The Indian side agreed to respond to the pricing formula and conveyed to Iran that the total price payable for the gas on the India-Pakistan border would also depend on transportation cost and transit fees payable to Pakistan.

No clarity

As there was no clarity on these, it was not possible for India to decide on the final price, the Minister said.

Subsequently, Iran demanded introduction of a provision for price revision at the fifth tripartite Joint Working Group meeting at Tehran in May, to which both India and Pakistan disagreed.

To continue talks

At the sixth tripartite meeting, the gas price review clause was inter alia discussed and it was decided to carry forward the discussions to the next round of meetings, Mr. Deora said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page