Government mulls bringing natural gas under GST

NEW DELHI: The government is considering bringing natural gas within the ambit of goods and services tax (GST) and offer pricing freedom to gas producers, Oil Secretary Tarun Kapoor told an industry webinar on Wednesday.

Ficci, the organiser of the webinar, quoted Kapoor as saying that the government was targeting gas as it would be difficult to bring all petroleum products under GST at once.

“We want that whoever is in the sector has ease of operations. The first product which we are targeting is gas so if that happens that would be a good beginning and that is the direction we have to go, ” Kapoor said as per a statement issued by Ficci.

Currently, petrol, diesel, jet fuel, crude oil and natural gas fall outside the ambit of GST. “The government is keen to invite more investments into the sector. We are looking at pricing freedom, ” Kapoor said.

Gas producers have demanded the government lift all price control on domestic natural gas, saying current prices were lower than the production cost.