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Boost for surrender-your-cylinder blitz in pipeline
With piped gas connections gradually engulfing cities all across the country, the Petroleum Ministry in a major initiative along with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Company Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Company Ltd (BPCL) towards curbing misuse of cooking gas, has asked households to only keep one connection and affidavits are being sought from them in this regard.
According to sources in the Petroleum Ministry, households which have been given piped gas connectivity, are being asked to retain only one connection and those having surrendered their extra connection, have to give an affidavit to the piped natural gas (PNG) companies saying so.
While the affidavits are to be collected by the PNG companies, in order to check whether households have indeed surrendered their extra connections, oil marketing companies (OMCs) and PNG entities would exchange data (affidavits) with each other to verify the claims.
According to the campaign, launched recently by the Ministry along with OMCs, those households which have been given piped gas connections, would have to surrender their cylinders to the OMCs within 60 days of getting PNG.
An IOC official told The Pioneer that till date, more than 3 lakh liquified petroleum gas (LPG) connections have been blocked under the campaign throughout the country, while 62,000 connections have been surrendered by households.
In Delhi alone, more than 1 lakh LPG connections have been blocked while more than 26,000 connections have been voluntarily surrendered by households, the official informed.
Official sources said that the campaign took birth after several rounds of discussions between OMCs and PNG companies with the Petroleum Ministry, where the main concern was to stop misuse of LPG connections especially after the introduction of PNG connections in various cities of the country.
The basic kernel behind the campaign was to ensure that LPG, which is already sold at highly subsidised prices to consumers, should not be exposed to the risk of being misused by households which have been given PNG connections.
The campaign also comes at a time when the Government has not been able to take a decision on fixing the number of subsidised cylinders to be used by a household that does not fall in the poor household category. It had tried limiting the number of subsidised LPG cylinders to households, but had to drop the idea after opposition from its key allies like the DMK and Trinamool Congress.
Though the Ministry claims that it had launched the campaign a year back, there is hardly any awareness among the consumers about it. In fact, a couple of months there were some sporadic announcements on some radio stations, asking households to surrender their extra connections, but there was no mention of any 60 days deadline for doing so, as is being claimed by the Ministry. Also the radio spots did not mention whether any stringent action would be taken against households found having dual connections.
In addition to this, the radio announcements did not have any mention of affidavits being sought from customers.
OMCs, however, claim that the responsibility of collecting affidavits rests with the PNG companies, which have been informing consumers about this through the monthly bills being sent to their consumers.
On the lack of an aggressive promotion of the campaign, an IOC official said that it is an ongoing process and in near future, there are plans to launch full fledged audio-visual as well as print publicity for creating awareness about the campaign among the consumers.
OMCs lose around Rs 378 on every domestic cooking gas cylinder. A 14.2-kg LPG cylinder meant for domestic use sells at Rs 399.26 in Delhi compared to Rs 1,349 for a commercial cylinder of 19 kg, which is market-linked.
This vast price difference has led to rampant black marketing and diversion of LPG connections, which forced the Government to launch the campaign. The annual subsidy on domestic LPG is usually in the range of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore.
With piped gas connections gradually engulfing cities all across the country, the Petroleum Ministry in a major initiative along with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Company Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Company Ltd (BPCL) towards curbing misuse of cooking gas, has asked households to only keep one connection and affidavits are being sought from them in this regard.
According to sources in the Petroleum Ministry, households which have been given piped gas connectivity, are being asked to retain only one connection and those having surrendered their extra connection, have to give an affidavit to the piped natural gas (PNG) companies saying so.
While the affidavits are to be collected by the PNG companies, in order to check whether households have indeed surrendered their extra connections, oil marketing companies (OMCs) and PNG entities would exchange data (affidavits) with each other to verify the claims.
According to the campaign, launched recently by the Ministry along with OMCs, those households which have been given piped gas connections, would have to surrender their cylinders to the OMCs within 60 days of getting PNG.
An IOC official told The Pioneer that till date, more than 3 lakh liquified petroleum gas (LPG) connections have been blocked under the campaign throughout the country, while 62,000 connections have been surrendered by households.
In Delhi alone, more than 1 lakh LPG connections have been blocked while more than 26,000 connections have been voluntarily surrendered by households, the official informed.
Official sources said that the campaign took birth after several rounds of discussions between OMCs and PNG companies with the Petroleum Ministry, where the main concern was to stop misuse of LPG connections especially after the introduction of PNG connections in various cities of the country.
The basic kernel behind the campaign was to ensure that LPG, which is already sold at highly subsidised prices to consumers, should not be exposed to the risk of being misused by households which have been given PNG connections.
The campaign also comes at a time when the Government has not been able to take a decision on fixing the number of subsidised cylinders to be used by a household that does not fall in the poor household category. It had tried limiting the number of subsidised LPG cylinders to households, but had to drop the idea after opposition from its key allies like the DMK and Trinamool Congress.
Though the Ministry claims that it had launched the campaign a year back, there is hardly any awareness among the consumers about it. In fact, a couple of months there were some sporadic announcements on some radio stations, asking households to surrender their extra connections, but there was no mention of any 60 days deadline for doing so, as is being claimed by the Ministry. Also the radio spots did not mention whether any stringent action would be taken against households found having dual connections.
In addition to this, the radio announcements did not have any mention of affidavits being sought from customers.
OMCs, however, claim that the responsibility of collecting affidavits rests with the PNG companies, which have been informing consumers about this through the monthly bills being sent to their consumers.
On the lack of an aggressive promotion of the campaign, an IOC official said that it is an ongoing process and in near future, there are plans to launch full fledged audio-visual as well as print publicity for creating awareness about the campaign among the consumers.
OMCs lose around Rs 378 on every domestic cooking gas cylinder. A 14.2-kg LPG cylinder meant for domestic use sells at Rs 399.26 in Delhi compared to Rs 1,349 for a commercial cylinder of 19 kg, which is market-linked.
This vast price difference has led to rampant black marketing and diversion of LPG connections, which forced the Government to launch the campaign. The annual subsidy on domestic LPG is usually in the range of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore.
