A crucial meeting of the three participating nations to finalize the transit fee for the $ 7.6 billion Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan and India (TAPI) gas pipeline project failed to make head way on Tuesday Kabul and New Delhi failed to finalise the fee. An official source said that Afghanistan side had sought price of 54 cents per MMBTU for the transit of gas through its territory from India which was deemed high by the Indian officials who were ready to pay upto 45 cents per MMBTU. The two days talks between the three participating nations were held here to finalise the transit fee before the signing of the gas sale purchase agreement between the seller and the buyers later this month in Ashgabat. The source said that Afghanistan said mentioned that they were ready to reduce the price to 50 cents per MMBTU which the Indian side considered still too high and after much deliberation they showed intention to take their offer to 47 cents per MMBTU. But they said they still had to consult their higher authorities to make final decision. Pakistan also participated in the talks but it did not take aggressive part in the debate, as the source said that it has already told the two countries that it would be charging same transit fee from India as finalised with Afghanistan. He said that they would be sending the final transit fee to the ECC for approval.
