Help Kochi LNG terminal to utilise full capacity, government urged

Natural gas can usher in industrial revolution in South India , says official

January 19, 2014 11:23 am | Updated November 16, 2021 10:13 pm IST - KOCHI:

Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food,and Public Distribution K.V. Thomas addresses a meeting convened by the Kerala Chamber ofCommerce and Industry in the city on Saturday.

Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food,and Public Distribution K.V. Thomas addresses a meeting convened by the Kerala Chamber ofCommerce and Industry in the city on Saturday.

A meeting of various stakeholders of natural gas based projects, convened by the Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Saturday, urged the government to adopt suitable measures for maximum capacity utilisation of the LNG terminal here. Less than 10 per cent of the capacity of the 5 MMTPA terminal, set up by Petronet LNG Limited here, is currently being utilised.

“The Union government and the Kerala government should exempt the Kochi Petronet LNG from Customs duty and the Value Added Tax respectively to bring down the price of the LNG,” said an appeal adopted at the workshop.

Inaugurating the meeting, Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, K.V. Thomas, underlined the need for a national policy on LNG. The pricing and other issues needed to be examined with a view to providing optimum benefits to industries and people. Regular supply of gas for domestic purposes under the City Gas project would be able to give the much needed relief to LPG consumers.

Rational policy

M.P. Sukumaran Nair, representative of Centre for Green Technology and Management, called for a rational pricing policy for LNG. He advocated a system of centralised pooling of gas. The price of LNG in Kochi could be brought to half the current value if such a procedure is followed.

Recalling that the Kochi LNG terminal was originally planned to go on stream by 2003, he said the State would have lost about Rs.75,000 crore over the past decade due to the delay in the commissioning of the project. He also called for formation of a natural gas users’ forum.

Former minister S.Sarma said the NTPC’s unwillingness to make a shift to LNG fuel was a major handicap in its pursuit for maximum capacity utilisation of Kochi LNG terminal. The price of gas provided in Kochi should be on par with that offered at Dahej in Gujarat where Petronet LNG had set up its first terminal.

K.P.Ramesh, senior official of Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL), said natural gas is capable of ushering in an industrial revolution in the entire South India if the pipeline connectivity is established. GAIL had been working on the project to lay the Kochi-Koottanad-Bangalore and Koottanad-Mangalore pipelines, but opposition from people and political parties had hindered its progress. GAIL had experienced trouble in laying pipelines even in government owned land, he said.

K.Chandran Pillai, former MP; Vijayan Pillai, AITUC leader; and representatives of various industrial units such as FACT and BSES spoke.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.