The Union finance ministry has received a proposal from the petroleum ministry for inclusion of natural gas under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and will likely take it to the GST Council as it meets in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer on December 21. The GST Council includes the state governments too, and it typically takes decisions via consensus. The petroleum ministry is pushing for the inclusion of natural gas in GST, as it feels it will be beneficial for the petrochemical value chain. The current structure of paying multiple taxes on gas, the incidence of which differs across the states, is seen to have a cascading nature. Natural gas is a major industrial feedstock, besides its use as fuel. It is used to produce urea, a common fertiliser, and fed into capital-intensive crackers to produce olefins (ethylene/propylene), inputs for a wide range of industries.