Mumbai, Oct 4 (IANS): In a pre-Navratri fuel hike shocker, the Mahanagar Gas Ltd (MGL) has decided to hike the prices of CNG and domestic PNG by Rs 2/kg with effect from midnight (Oct 4/5), an official said here on Monday.

Accordingly, the revised final, all-inclusive prices of Compressed Natural Gas used by vehicles will go up from Rs 51.98/kg to Rs 54.57/kg (including taxes), while the rates of domestic Piped Natural Gas in and around Mumbai will shoot up from Rs 30.40/SCM to Rs 32.67/SCM (Slab 1) and Rs 36.00/SCM to Rs 38.27/SCM (Slab 2), respectively.

There are around 1.60 million (16 lakhs) PNG consumers and over 800,000 CNG customers in and around Mumbai.

The MGL has justified the hike on grounds that from October 1, the Central Government has increased the prices of domestically produced gas by a whopping 62 per cent.

Besides, re-gasified LNG prices are at historic high levels, and this combination led to a significant increase in the cost of gas being procured by MGL.

"Being a customer focused company, the MGL has always tried to maintain price stability for its CNG and domestic PNG customers. However, since the increase in gas price is large, MGL has decided to progressively recover such increased gas cost," said the service provider.

The MGL assured that despite the upward revision, CNG offers a saving of about 65 per cent and 44 per cent compared with petrol-diesel at current price levels in Mumbai.

Similarly, MGL's domestic PNG offers 34 per cent saving in comparison to the current price of domestic LPG coupled with convenience, safety, reliability and environmental friendliness to consumers.