BG remains committed to Pipavav LNG project
British Gas would have gone ahead with its 2.5m t/y Pipavav LNG import project, but for the 'unfriendly' tax and policy regime in India.
A source reveals that BG remains "very confident" of the viability of a third LNG terminalin Gujarat but wants Delhi to announce an 'industry friendly' LNG policy. "The government has been sitting on the LNG policy for more than a year," he complains.
"Unless this is cleared LNG cant be competitive." BG wants the new LNG policy to include a ten-year income tax holiday; a singlenational sales tax of 4% on gas instead of the multitude of rates across India; zero import tariff on LNG; and zero import tariff on plant and machinery for an LNG project instead of the present 53% tariff. BG also opposes ministry plans to pool the domestic natural gas price with Petronet- LNG's gas from Dahej.
