He said while the price of gas as per the administered price mechanism, where the price is fixed by the government, is $2 per unit, the selling price of the contractor is $4.2 per unit, which is at a premium of over 100 percent over state-fix price.

Chalasani's comments also came against the larger issue of the legal dispute between Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources and his elder brother Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries over the gas, off the coast of Andhra Pradesh.

Last month, the Bombay High Court had asked Reliance Industries to supply 28 million units of gas from the fields to Reliance Natural Resources for 17 years at $2.34 per unit after assigning 12 million units to a state-run power utility NTPC.

But Reliance Industries challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court, which heard the case July 20 and fixed Sep 1 as the next date of hearing. It also asked all parties to file their replies on the government position on the matter by then.

During the discussions in parliament Thursday, Deora had ruled out a government takeover of the distribution of Krishna-Godavari gas.

'The old days of nationalisation are gone,' the minister told the Rajya Sabha during a calling attention motion after some members, led by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Tapan Kumar Sen, suggested a state takeover of the gas distribution.

In a written the minister also said the government will examine proposal to fix a uniform domestic price for natural gas, based on where the hydrocarbon asset has been discovered.

'A study to consider the feasibility of having a uniform cost price regime is being undertaken, the report of which is expected to be made available within three months.'