Bloomberg Indraprastha Surges on Favorable Court Ruling in Gas Rate Case
Pratap PatnaikDebjit Chakraborty
Indraprastha Gas Ltd. surged to the highest level in three years in Mumbai after India’s top court said the industry regulator doesn’t have the jurisdiction to set prices for transporting natural gas.
Indraprastha, a gas retailer in New Delhi, gained as much as 18 percent to 492 rupees, the most since June 1, 2012, and traded at 464 rupees as of 11:36 a.m. Gas distributor GAIL India Ltd. reversed losses to climb as much as 2.3 percent.
“There is no merit” in the petition of the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board, Dipak Misra, the judge heading the two-member bench, said today.
The regulator had appealed to the top court after the Delhi High Court ruled in favor of Indraprastha in 2012. The city gas retailer had challenged the regulator in the high court after it cut pipeline transportation rates by 63 percent and gas-compression prices by 59 percent.
“This will remove the regulatory overhang on the city gas distribution sector,” said Priyank Chandra, a Mumbai-based analyst at Dolat Capital Market Pvt. “It brings lot of clarity to investors who were looking forward to investing in the sector.”
