(ET)
Inclusion of natural gas in the goods and services tax regime, pipeline tariff reform and pricing freedom for all domestic gas would be necessary to make the proposed gas trading hub a success, the chief of Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has said. India is aiming to build a gas trading hub to help develop the domestic gas market, and the downstream regulator, PNGRB, is working out regulations for the proposed hub.“There will be so much confusion in trading gas on hub without GST. People will withdraw. It will not be a happy situation,” PNGRB chairman Dinesh Kumar Sarraf. This is because tax rates on natural gas vary from state to state and it would be hard for buyers and sellers entering physical contracts on the exchange to juggle multiple rates, he said. A single predictable tax rate would make it much easier for the market, Sarraf said.
