Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday assured investors that India will honour contractual commitments under various energy agreements. “Commitments shall be honoured and investors should not have any concern,” Sitharaman said at the India Energy Forum of CERAWeek. Recently, Andhra Pradesh had asked government nodal agencies Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and NTPC to lower tariff of renewable energy projects auctioned by them under concluded power purchase agreements. The investors sentiment was affected due to this, especially in the renewable energy sector. Sitharaman further said that atmosphere to invest will be friendly, and added that tax incidence has been lowered without adding any “ifs and buts”. She said, amendments are being made to Companies Act so it doesn’t look punitive, and added that course of deep reforms will continue. Earlier, Dharmendra Pradhan expressed hope that natural gas and aviation turbine fuel will be brought under Goods and Services Tax regime initially. At present, petroleum products like petrol, diesel, ATF and natural gas are out of GST, and states levy sales tax on these products.
