NGVAmerica Secures Fix to Correct Indiana’s Inequitable Taxation of Natural Gas Motor Fuel
Work of Rep. Randy Frye and Partnering Indiana Stakeholders Highlighted
Washington, DC – NGVAmerica is proud to announce that natural gas motor fuel is once again equitably taxed in the State of Indiana relative to traditional motor fuels. Passage of House Bill 23-1454 ensures that state taxes on natural gas motor fuel will be calculated based on the diesel gallon equivalent actually sold at the fueling dispenser.
NGVAmerica coordinated a multi-year advocacy effort – which included fuel retailers, fleets, utilities, Drive Clean Indiana – to correct this issue, engaging the support of Rep. Randy Frye (HD-67), an NGV champion. Rep. Frye helped grow a coalition of like-minded legislators who ushered the change into law in this year’s General Assembly session.
The discrepancy first arose in 2015 when the Indiana Department of Revenue changed the point of taxation for compressed natural gas (CNG) sales from the CNG retail station dispenser to the natural gas utility meter to better align with how traditional liquid petroleum motor fuels are taxed.1
The distribution and dispensing of CNG motor fuel, however, is different, which resulted in an unfair CNG motor fuel tax rate. Local utilities receive natural gas from large transmission pipelines and deliver gas via smaller distribution pipes to customers, including CNG motor fuel retailers. After receiving the natural gas, retailers remove moisture and compress the methane molecules to make them suitable for dispensing, storage, and use as CNG motor fuel. Through that process, the amount of natural gas reported as delivered to the retail fueling station is always higher than the amount of CNG actually sold at the dispenser to the station’s fleet customer due to a number of factors.2 The result was that natural gas retailers in Indiana were taxed at least an additional 5.77 percent over gasoline and diesel retailers for the same amount of energy sold.
Furthering the problem was the fact that CNG motor fuel in Indiana was taxed energy-wise per gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) but subject to the diesel gallon equivalent (DGE) rate, which added an additional 13 percent increase in CNG’s effective tax rate. Before this legislative fix, total overtax rate for CNG motor fuel sold in Indiana was 18.77 percent, or approximately $0.10 in additional tax over what diesel customers pay per gallon.
Indiana House Bill 23-1454 includes language that “Provides that the difference between the amount of special fuel purchased by a compressed natural gas product fuel station and the amount of compressed natural gas product produced and sold by the compressed natural gas product fuel station is exempt from the special fuel tax.” The change also enables an accurate refund for CNG motor fuel taxes that have been overpaid since the 2015 change.
“NGVAmerica salutes Representative Frye for championing this issue for our members and fleet customers,” said NGVAmerica President Daniel Gage. “This seemingly innocuous change in the point of taxation and the way CNG was measured had a negative impact on fuelers and fleets looking to transition to cleaner, less carbon intensive transportation fuels. We are proud to say that with this law’s passage, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and every U.S. state administers CNG motor fuel tax in the same equitable manner.”
The bill was approved by the General Assembly on April 28th and signed into law by Governor Holcomb on May 4, 2023.”
Investments in natural gas and renewable natural gas fueled trucks and transit buses accessing ports, cities, and densely populated neighborhoods are the most immediate and fiscally responsible investment to clean our air and combat climate change. Communities get more clean vehicles having greater clean air and climate impact for the money with natural gas than with any other alternative fuel option. No other transportation fuel is as sustainable, adaptive, and competitive across all applications and vehicle classes. And heavy-duty natural gas trucks are not demonstration science projects; they are proven, scalable, and on U.S. roads today. More on how natural gas is a NOW commercial transportation solution can be found at: https://transportproject.org/rng-is-how/.
1 Taxes on gasoline and diesel motor fuel sales in Indiana are calculated at the rack (or from where the fuel is distributed) and not at the actual fueling station where the fuel is dispensed.
2 Factors include differences in the precision required for natural gas meters, the use of differing gas meter technologies (utilities measure volume while retailers measure mass), gas compression and treatment practices, and conversion rate inconsistencies.
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NGVAmerica is a national trade association of sustainability solutionists and experts in the clean transportation field. Our roughly 200 members are dedicated to the development of a growing, profitable, and sustainable market for vehicles, ships and carriers powered by natural gas and biomethane. NGVAmerica member companies produce, distribute, and market natural gas and biomethane across North America, manufacture and service natural gas vehicles, engines, and equipment, and operate fleets powered by clean-burning gaseous fuels. Find out more at: www.ngvamerica.org.
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