If production, transport and insurance costs are constant, fuel will be cheaper: Oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri

The government is open to the idea of unbundling natural gas transport and marketing but will tread cautiously on the matter, as this may trigger allegations of allowing a free ride to those who have not invested in building pipelines, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a discussion with Pranab Dhal Samanta at the ET India Ascends event on Wednesday.

"We will do that. But everything has a time and place," Puri said, responding to a query whether the government was planning to split entities that engage in both marketing and transport of natural gas.

State-run GAIL and GSPC engage in both gas marketing and transport, which their competitors say gives them an unfair advantage over other pureplay gas marketers.

"Reforms will take place everywhere. But you see, I'll be very frank, if somebody has set up thousands of crores worth of pipelines and has an advantage, and you want to make that available to, let's say, anybody who has not spent anything, then you will get allegations flying at you," Puri said.

The minister noted progress on including natural gas under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). "I think the most important reform we are talking about is to bring gas under GST. And today, I see acceptance of it in most places. There were two or three states which had (objections). They're all coming around, so I think that would be a major incentive," he said.

On FUEL PRICES
"What constitutes the price at the retail point? First, the cost of production. I think that is going to come down. The second is cost of transportation. If global turbulence increases, the freight cost will go up, insurance cost will go up. I hope that doesn't happen. And finally, central taxation. If these three remain constant and we don't have any turbulence, I think, you don't have to be a betting man to say yes in the foreseeable future, prices could come down."

IMPACT OF TRUMP win ON CONFLICTS
"The president-elect is very clear from day one that he wants these conflicts to come to the winding up phase. For whatever I've seen of the president-elect in terms of campaigning, they'll have a positive effect in terms of winding down. That's an expectation".

"In the Middle East, it's gone on longer than I expected. There was a point of view that some parties were going to leverage this till the election. But with all the disclaimers I can put in, my view is that both these conflicts will see winding down."

ON BJP'S NON-PERFORMANCE IN PUNJAB
"We got into a wrong marriage. The coalition with Akali Dal was a bad marriage. We became junior partners. The total number of seats in the legislative assembly in Punjab is about 117 and we only contested 20 to 23.

"Now, how do you expect to rise as a party or a national party in the 2019 elections, when you got 303 seats in the Lok Sabha, and we contested hardly any in Punjab, and we won 2 out of the 3 or something like that. Now my point is, that was a strategic mistake. So, we cut that. Now the positive side is that (our) popular vote share in Punjab has gone up three times. I find for the first time, the rural countryside is receptive to the BJP. I'm not saying that we're all there yet."

ON KHALISTAN ADVOCATES IN CANADA
"Don't let a few misguided elements paint an entire community, the community to which I belong. I'm a proud member. I can tell you (about) the sacrifices of that community, the hard work of that community. There are a few misguided elements who only get entry there because they're able to paint the picture of persecution. So, I am very dismissive of that. Whether you are a Sikh or Hindu-they are hardworking people. They went there to better their lives, etc. But some of the elements that have been imported there are there for the wrong reasons. At the end of the day, they do themselves great injustice through their behaviour."

ON INDIA-CANADA RELATIONS
"It takes two to tango. There's nothing that I have seen positive from the other side. I went to the Kanishka memorial when I was the Civil Aviation Minister. They brought a full plane down through a terrorist action and no action was taken against the perpetrator of that."

"Hillary Clinton famously said that, you know, if you allow vipers in your backyard, those vipers will bite you one day."