The GST Council may decide to include natural gas in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime as a measure to provide some relief to the oil and gas sector.
Currently, crude oil, petrol, diesel, jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and natural gas are not included in the new indirect tax structure, which is set to kick in from July 1.
This essentially means that various goods and services procured by the oil and gas industry will be subject to GST, but the sale and supply of oil, gas and petroleum products will continue to attract earlier taxes like excise duty and VAT.
Unlike other industries which can take credit for any tax paid towards furtherance of business, no credits on input GST will be available to the oil and gas industry leading to huge additional indirect tax burden with stranded costs of about Rs 25,000 crore.
“There is a recognition even in the finance ministry that the current situation is not right. They are also making efforts to get the GST Council to see reason,” a senior official said.
Published 27 June 2017, 18:11 IST