India needs an overall energy policy: Pradhan

Renewing the call for bringing natural gas under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, India’s Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on Tuesday, said the country needs an overarching policy covering various energy verticals in order to achieve selfsufficiency and security in this critical sector. Furthermore, defending the union government's target of doubling refinery-capacity to 600 million tonnes, Pradhan, speaking at an energy conclave in the capital, said that all major economies needed multiple sources of energy for growth. "Gas as a clean fuel should come under the GST when coal has already been placed in the five per cent slab under the new indirect tax regime," the Minister said at the ENRich 2017 event, organised by consulting multinational KPMG, reports IANS.

Petroleum products, including natural gas, still remain outside the ambit of the GST, although the industry is for its inclusion. Reacting to criticism of plans to double refinery capacity at a time when the Indian Railways (IR) has decided to phase out diesel locomotives and electrify completely and at a time when the government wants to push the nation towards adopting electric cars -- both by 2022, Pradhan said India continues to import petrochemicals and a roadmap was required for all energy utilisation in future.

"What is the real energy road map for India in the next two to three decades. We need a comprehensive policy for all energy verticals...hydrcarbons, coal, renewables, hydro and nuclear power," he said. In this connection, he pointed to the $20 million petrochemical complex being built jointly by Saudi Arabian state-run oil firm Aramco and petrochemicals giant SABIC.