Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has

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been in controversies for long. Recently, two board members had approached the apex court, accusing the chairman of taking decisions on his own. PNGRB chairperson L Mansingh talks about the crisis in an interview with Siddhartha P Saikia. Excerpts:

Board members YPC Dangay and Sudha Mahalingam say that you do not consider members' views

Work was divided among the members on the basis of their experience. For example, BS Negi is incharge of authorisation because of his technical background. Similarly, Sudha Mahalingam handled consumer-related issues. Chairperson has not kept anything with him. Chairperson has taken no decision individually. In last three-and-half years, 24 board meetings were held. All matters were passed unanimously by the board. The regulator has adopted a transparent and participatory mechanism. If any board member had differing opinion, he will have to convince others or get be convinced by others' view.

Ever since PNGRB was set up, there have been tussles with oil ministry.

Every new body has tussles with the nodal ministry. This is because the ministry has to part with several powers. Similar incidents have happened when Trai and CCI were constituted. PNGRB function is quite satisfactory, though it could have been better. It is not as bad as people are thinking.

So far PNGRB has not got complete powers. Does it affect the functioning?

I have been writing to the oil ministry repeatedly. Even after notification of Section 16 last year, there are many other sections to be notified. For instance, Section 11 (f) of PNGRB Act says the regulator has right to monitor prices, prevent restrictive trade prac tices, monitor price of transportation and ensure adequate availability of products. These powers are applicable only to notified products. We have asked the oil ministry to notify all petroleum products. But the ministry has not notified any product so far.

How does it affect you work on field?

Since no product is notified, we cannot monitor anything. For instance, LNG terminals do not allow third company to import LNG. If a firm wants to import gas, they will have to buy it from Shell or Petronet. This is a restrictive trade practice.