ASSOCHAM plea to revoke notification vis-a-vis input tax credit withdrawal on natural gas by Gujarat Govt.

In the larger interest of industries, ASSOCHAM has urged the Centre to immediately revoke the notification vis-a-vis withdrawal of input tax credit on inter-state sale/branch transfer of natural gas issued by 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," highlighted ASSOCHAM in a communication addressed to Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman and Finance Minister of Gujarat, Nitin Patel.

"These PSUs have passed on the increase in tax to industry outside Gujarat, thus making RLNG more costly by 11 per cent with adverse impact ranging from Rs 2.50 to Rs 3 per standard cubic meter (scm)," noted the letter.

Considering that 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.

"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," the ASSOCHAM said.