India has halved custom duty of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 2.5 per cent from 5 per cent earlier at terminals as a part of its strategy to become a “gas-based economy”.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the measure to cut the duty to make gas imports cheaper in Union Budget 2017-18 which may help LNG consumers, especially power and fertiliser companies, given the drop in domestic production.
The government had earlier stated its intent to more than double its annual LNG import capacity to 50 million tonnes in the next few years
India’s natural gas demand is expected to rise from 473 million standard cubic meter per day (mmscmd) now to 494 mmscmd in 2017-18 and 523 mmscmd in 2018-19. Matt Judon Jersey