9.40 ndian onom
Impetus is required for construction of Oil & Gas areas, presently, the assessment process
not only cross-country pipelines but also is going on in 50 blocks. Commercial production
city gas distribution. The present system is yet to begin.
of bidding by the Petroleum and Natural
Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) is renewaBle energy
lopsided and long-drawn-out and needs
to be reformed since it has constrained India’s renewable energy potential has been
development of the gas network. assessed (in the medium-term) at 8, 96,602 MW,
which includes the potential from solar (7,48,990
Expansion of the PNG/CNG
MW), wind (1, 00,000 MW), small hydro (20,000
(Compressed Natural Gas) network
MW) and biomass (26,800 MW) power.
could help provide gas connections to
rural areas. Apart from grid power requirement, renewable
energy sources are also being used for distributed
Rationalization of LPG subsidy is
generation, lighting, pumping and motive power
essential. It may be useful to cap subsidy
requirement in remote and inaccessible areas.
to 10 LPG cylinders for each household
India is graduating from Mega watts to Gig watts
(that being the maximum used for usual
in the generation of clean renewable energy. The
domestic cooking) while aligning taxes
target from various renewable energy sources has
and duties on domestic and commercial
been increased by the GoI to 175 GW by the year
LPG users.
2022 – solar and wind to contribute 100 GW and
Import of liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
60 GW, respectively. The major steps taken by
for use in the power industry is exempt
the government to boost the sector in recent times
from customs duty while LNG for all
are as given below (by early 2017):
other uses attracts 5 per cent customs
(i) Solar Rooftop: Grid-connected rooftops
duties. There should be no exemptions
systems to come up by 2019-20 under
for any sector.
the National Solar Mission (NSM).
In order to develop a cost-effective and
revenue-neutral mechanism for swapping (ii) Solar Parks: 25 solar parks and ultra mega
of gas across producing and consuming solar power projects with an aggregate
states for the national gas grid, it is capacity of 20,000 MW to be set up
important to make special tax provision in the next five years (from 2015-16 to
for sale of natural gas under the Central 2019-20).
Sales Tax Act 1956. Natural gas and (iii) Solar Projects under the NSM: In February
LNG may be treated as declared goods to 2015, the government announced to set
bring about tax parity with crude oil and up 15,000 MW of grid-connected solar
make prices uniform across states. PV power projects under the NSM by
Meanwhile, India has entered into exploring 2018-19.
the unconventional resources of energy such as (iv) Solar Pumps: Target of installing of
the CBM (Coal Bed Methane) and Shale Oil & one lakh solar pumps for irrigation and
Gas. The estimated CBM resources are about 92 drinking water by 2016.
TCF (trillion cubic feet) of which only 9.9 TCF (v) Solar Cities: Approval granted for 56 solar
has so far been confirmed – current production is city projects under the Development of
about 1 million cubic metre per day. In the Shale Solar Cities Programme.