The government-owned gas company has begun selling stoves and other gas appliances to create a larger market for its gas. Merchants who sell such products complain that the competition will hurt their businesses. That may well be; however, the government-owned gas company is within its rights. After all, the owner of a private gas company might well decide to sell such appliances and surely there would be nothing wrong with that.
The principle 'Government-owned companies have the right to do whatever private businesses have the right to do' most helps to justify the reasoning above.