LPG consumers may soon have an option to fully opt out of subsidized cylinders and get rewarded by figuring in a prominent list on LPG Transparency Portals.
The pilot project by oil marketing companies to test direct subsidy transfer in Mysore is offering this option to 570,000 consumers.
The transparency portal, launched in June this, made public the information related to the LPG subsidy being availed by every single consumer.
The portal prominently flashes a link saying ‘High Consumption Consumers’ and has brought out names of such consumers, mostly politicians and industrialist, out in the open.
Under the new plan, the portal is likely to have another link pointing to consumers outside LPG subsidy. “We have come across several well to do consumers who are in favour of giving up subsidized LPG. Such names will be flashed prominently on the portal so that no one misuses their connections,” said an IndianOil official.
The portal reveals that while politicians consumed up to 185 cylinders in a year, the average usage of other consumers ranged between 10 and 12 only. Topping the list of LPG connections is the late OP Jindal, the father of Congress MP Naveen Jindal and industrialist Sajjan Jindal, with 184 cylinders at their 6, Prithviraj Road, address in the capital.
Interestingly, another name of Prabha Devi Rawat is mentioned at the same address. There are 185 cylinders against her name, taking the total number ordered from the bungalow to a whopping 369 cylinders between June 2011 and May 2012.
With over 80% Aadhaar coverage, Mysore district was chosen for a pilot scheme linking the UID numbers with domestic LPG supply, to prevent misuse of subsidised LPG. The pilot started around August last year and aims to test efficacy of direct subsidy transfer on domestic LPG. Oil companies charge Mysore consumers a price that is Rs 10 per cylinder higher than other districts in the state and this amount gets credited back to the consumers’ account that is Aadhaar linked.
On September 13, the government has limited the number of subsidized cylinders per consumer to six every year. A consumer is now required to pay a market price for seventh cylinder onwards. Compared to a subsidized price of Rs 410.43 per cylinder in Delhi, the market linked price is Rs 894.
The country has around 140 million domestic LPG consumers. About 12 million customers were added in 2011-12 indicating a growth of around 10%. The government spent Rs 30,000 crore in LPG subsidy during the last fiscal.
