Energy Security Archives - Page 2 Of 2

GST Hike Squeezes Oil Explorers as Tax Burden Climbs to 18%

19Apr

By Newscript News NetworkNo Comments

News Bulletin, Newsletter, Oil & Gas Industry

GST Hike Squeezes Oil Explorers as Tax Burden Climbs to 18%

Executive note India’s oil exploration sector faces a punishing fiscal blow after the GST Council’s decision to raise service taxes from 12% to 18%. The September 2025 hike will saddle upstream companies with billions in additional costs, squeezing ONGC, Oil India, Vedanta and Reliance at a time when commodity price volatility and currency pressures already challenge project economics across the energy sector. India’s upstream oil and gas industry has absorbed a significant fiscal shock following the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council’s decision to increase rates on exploration and production services. The tax rate climbs to 18% from 12%, effective September 22, 2025, covering petroleum exploration, mining, drilling, and related support activities across the sector. Indu...

PREDATORS SCRIPT INDIA’S SOLAR GROWTH STORY

19TH OCTOBER, 2025 The debate over protectionism and predatory pricing, very often, lack rationale and logic. The noise and indignation against invasion of domestic market place by foreign predators cannot camouflage the truth. Consumers, and , end users prefer qualitative and durable products - indigenous or imported - at affordable prices. The demand for imported or foreign products reflects the deficiencies in indigenous products and their incompatibility with the competitive environment. Believe it or not, China is playing a crucial role in India's solar energy evolution and revolution. Perhaps, this can be construed as ridiculous and incredible, but the solar success story can be attributed to so-called predatory pricing by China. India 's imports of of toughened te...

Why Energy Journalism Matters More Than Ever

Four decades of covering energy markets teaches you one thing: complexity never simplifies, it just shifts. I began as a journalist in Kolkata when energy meant keeping lights on. Two decades later, I joined ONGC for another twenty years—learning how boardroom strategies translate into operational reality. Training across India and Europe on energy transition revealed a truth: everyone’s improvising, some just do it more elegantly. Today’s energy paradoxes fascinate me. Shell invests billions in renewables while expanding oil operations. Governments promise net-zero while securing gas imports. Solar costs collapse, yet grid infrastructure requires trillions. This isn’t contradiction—it’s transformation at civilizational scale. Newscript Energy World was conceived for this momen...