Hope to see natural gas inclusion under GST in interim budget 2024: PLNG MD & CEO

We hope that natural gas will be brought under Goods and Service Tax (GST) to improve gas consumption across the country; this would have to be cleared by the GST Council, said Petronet LNG Limited Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer AK Singh on his expectations from the upcoming Interim Budget.

Every state has its interests in mind. So, we hope that good sense will prevail among all the states and that natural gas comes under the purview of GST. This will substantially improve the utilisation of natural gas across the country, Singh said in an interaction with Moneycontrol.

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Additionally, the government has already capped domestic gas prices for utilisation in the compressed natural gas (CNG) and piped natural gas (PNG) sectors. The domestic gas production has also increased in the recent past which is good for the country’s gas economy.

The use of natural gas in the country should increase and for that, both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and domestic gas are required. India imports almost 85 percent of its total crude requirement and almost 50 percent of its natural gas needs.

We believe a large portion of crude oil can be replaced with LNG in the country. If LNG prices are competitive with crude oil, from our country's perspective, it would be more desirable to import LNG than importing crude. This will reduce the country's import bill, in addition to being environment friendly and in the interest of the consumers.

There is a huge potential for replacing liquid fuel with gas and that can only be done with the import of LNG. So, we hope as the LNG prices stabilise then there will be a substantial increase in India’s LNG imports, which would give a boost to the gas economy in the country.