Council's next meet to take up bringing natural gas, ATF in GST

New Delhi: The GST Council could consider bringing natural gas within the purview of Goods and Services Tax in its next meeting, an official said on Friday. GST Council Joint Secretary Dheeraj Rastogi said aviation turbine fuel (ATF) would be another petroleum product that could also be brought within the GST ambit among five petroleum products.

The inclusion of natural gas within the GST purview on an experimental basis would be put before the GST Council in its forthcoming GST Council meeting, a PHD Chamber statement quoted Rastogi as saying.

He, however, did not prescribe a specific timeframe for bringing natural gas and ATF within GST. While petroleum products like kerosene, naphtha and LPG are under the ambit of GST, five items in the basket — crude oil, natural gas, aviation fuel, diesel and petrol — have been excluded during the initial years.

"Petroleum is a considerably larger source for revenues not only for centre but states also and on natural gas front, there is some consensus for bringing it into GST ambit and therefore, it could be first petroleum product that could come in well within GST network," Rastogi said, according to a PHD Chamber release.

Addressing the workshop on GST, Rastogi also indicated government's possible intentions for revision in definition of supply under GST. On advance ruling issue, the Joint Secretary held that in the recent past, some states have given a contradictory ruling on these to concerned stakeholders and, therefore, a policy decision is likely on setting up centralised advance ruling authorities to address relevant issues relating to GST rather than keeping redressal of such issues confined to one particular state advance ruling authority.

Meanwhile, a delegation led by Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to thank him for the government's decision to reimburse the central share of GST on items for 'langar' and 'prasad'. The delegation also consisted of members from Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

Under the 'Seva Bhoj Yojna' scheme, the government will reimburse the central share of CGST and IGST on items for 'langar' and 'prasad', offered free of cost by charitable religious institutions, including Gurdwaras. The delegation also thanked the prime minister for the series of measures taken by the government to ease the burden on sugarcane farmers, an official statement said here.