The domestic gas tariff adjustment scheduled for the first of next month will, on the figures circulated yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce, add between seven and nine per cent to the winter quarter bill of a typical household in the Cordoba interior, and between five and seven per cent in the coastal districts where the pipeline premium is lower. The outer districts of Almaria Vella, whose housing stock is older and less efficiently heated, will feel the adjustment most sharply.

The Almarian Consumers' Union, in a letter delivered to the Ministry yesterday afternoon, has asked that the adjustment be phased over two quarters and that a rebate be offered to households on the social register. The Ministry has not yet replied; a technical session is expected within the fortnight.

Hauliers, whose arithmetic this paper set out in Tuesday's edition, will absorb the adjustment at the depot and pass it to the shipper at the next contract cycle. The Chamber of Commerce expects a visible effect on retail prices by mid-quarter.