As part of moving towards cleaner sources of energy, India has a target to bring 15 percent natural gas into its energy basket by 2030. CNBCTV18 learns from government officials that it has written to the finance ministry and has reiterated its pitch to include natural gas under Goods and Services Tax (GST).

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also committed on several occasions to bring natural gas under GST.

“We have plans to spend Rs 7.5 lakh crore in creating oil and gas infrastructure over five years. A strong emphasis has been laid on the expansion of the city gas distribution network by covering 470 districts. We are committed to bringing natural gas under the GST regime. I want to tell the world to come and invest in India's energy sector” said the PM at an event in February this year.

A unified tax regime for natural gas is expected to help bring free gas marketing and expansion of the gas market. It will also help the government’s City Gas Distribution plan and momentum for buyers and sellers will gather steam for the newly launched Gas trading Exchange. To meet the 15 percent target by 2030, India is expected to use about 500 Million Metric Standard Cubic Meter per Day (MMCMD) of gas by 2030 from the current utilization of 150 MMCMD.

The consumption of gas majorly comes from the fertilizer, power sectors, and city gas distribution which includes Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Piped natural gas (PNG) apart from this gas is used in the refinery, petrochemical businesses as well.

(Edited by : Anshul)

First Published:Mar 23, 2021 3:02 PM IST