NTPC the big loser if KG gas price is hiked: Anil Ambani

Anil Ambani on Sunday claimed that the country's largest power producer, the state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation, would lose up to Rs30,000 crore if his elder brother Mukesh Ambani's firm Reliance Industries Ltd did not supply gas to his company, Reliance Natural Resources Ltd, at the contracted rate of $2.34 per unit.

Firing yet another salvo at the government ahead of the crucial Supreme Court judgement on the price of gas from RIL's Krishna-Godavari field, Ambani said in a 31 July letter to Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, ''We firmly believe that NTPC, like RNRL, is an innocent victim of RIL's corporate greed, which is reflected in its attempts to back out of its solemn and legal contractual commitments.''

Seeking a meeting with Shinde to discuss the matter, Anil said, ''Expert opinion and independent financial analysis suggest that NTPC could potentially lose over Rs20,000 crore if the gas price is revised from $2.34 per unit to $4.2.''

The loss, he said, could ''touch Rs 30,000 crore based on the cost of alternate fuels. Beyond this, the biggest impact would be that these NTPC plants may never come up''.

Anil's letter further said that his group company RNRL was in no way against the interests of NTPC. He said RNRL was not at all attempting to scuttle the PSU's chance of getting 12 mmscmd gas, contrary to ''speculative media reports and misinformation campaign by vested interests''.

''We would be delighted if NTPC, a 'navratna' PSU, gets its rightful share of gas for 17 years at a price of $2.34, which was discovered through open transparent international competitive bidding in 2004,'' he added.