Will honour all energy deals: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi: Union 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, the Andhra Pradesh government had asked 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 (PPAs).

The investors' sentiment was affected due to this, especially in the renewable energy sector, she said.

Sitharaman said, "I am conscious that we are talking about uncertainties which will prevail. But it is understandable and without taking any sides, I can tell you that commitments will be honoured. Therefore, Investors need not have that concern."

She further said that atmosphere to invest will be friendly and added that tax incidence has been lowered without adding any "ifs and buts".

The Finance minister was of the view that the government would not only work to simplify regulatory framework but also make sure that such incidents (as in case of Andhra Pradesh) do not happen again.

India has set an ambitious target of having 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022. Therefore, the nation requires huge investments to meet its target in next three years.

Referring to challenges like crude oil prices, its supply and other issues, she said India needs to widen its energy basked in view of speculation in crude oil prices in international markets.

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.