Industry body demands revoking of notification of Gujarat govt on natural gas

Ahmedabad: Industry body ASSOCHAM has urged the Union Government to immediately get revoked the notification vis-à-vis withdrawal of input tax credit on inter-state sale/branch transfer of natural gas issued by the Finance Department of Gujarat government on November 28 last year.

“Consequent to this notification, cost of Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) supplied by Petronet LNG, a Gujarat-based public sector undertaking (PSU) to other PSU gas distributors like GAIL India Limited, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) has shot up from four per cent to 15 per cent,” a statement by the ASSOCHAM released today with letters in this regard to Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Ms Nirmala Sitharaman and Finance Minister of Gujarat, Mr Nitin Patel, said.

“These PSUs have passed on the increase in tax to industry outside Gujarat, thus making RLNG costlier by 11 per cent with adverse impact ranging from Rs 2.50 to Rs three per standard cubic meter (scm),” the statement said.

Many industries are stuck with long-term supply agreements with PSU distributors of costly RLNG and therefore cannot switch over to cheaper alternate source of energy due to ‘take or pay’ clause in said agreements, the statement said adding “This notification has thus made matters worse by making RLNG further costlier hitting industries outside Gujarat very hard.”

“At a time when trade and industry are moving towards implementation of goods and services tax (GST), this withdrawal of input tax credit is unjust for industries outside Gujarat as it is making them highly uncompetitive,” it further added.

DeshGujarat