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The pace of registration to avail cash subsidy on purchase of LPG cooking gas cylinders has been satisfactory in Odisha, said oil and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan today.
"During my review with collectors of seven districts of Odisha, I came to know that the progress of seeding bank accounts with gas consumer number has been satisfactory in Odisha. The total registration has reached 39 per cent of total consumer base as on date, up from 12 per cent recorded three weeks ago," said Pradhan, after attending a video conference with Collectors  from the Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) office here.
The oil marketing companies (OMC) will roll out next phase of direct benefit transfer of LPG cylinders (DBTL) from January 1 onwards in all 30 districts of Odisha.
In the modified scheme, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has decided to do away with mandatory possession of Aadhaar card clause to avail the cash subsidy. The new norm now allows consumers to link their LPG cylinder consumer number with their bank accounts to get the cash subsidy through online payment, with or without an Aadhaar card.
The registration process will continue till March 2014, allowing consumers who have not applied for availing cash subsidy to buy cylinders at subsidised rate till end of this fiscal. Pradhan said given the pace of progress of the seeding program, Odisha can achieve 100 percent registration by end of January.
"Recently I had visited several districts and saw that many OMCs are sensitising consumers to avail the benefit through large scale campaigning. I hope the seeding program will be completed by end of January," he said after the review meeting.
Odisha has comparatively lower consumer base compared with states such as Punjab and Maharashtra. As per latest figures, there are 2.8 million LPG customers in 30 districts belonging to all four oil marketing companies, out of 42 million population. Â
In the first phase of the scheme launched as a pilot project in June 2013 a total of 47,108 consumers availed the cash subsidy benefit out of total 3.8 lakh consumers of Balasore, Bhadrak, Puri, Khurdha, Cuttack, Bolangir and Sundergarh district.
The new scheme will allow a further grace period till June 2015 after March, when non-cash transfer compliant LPG consumers will get an additional three month parking period, during which the sale will happen at market determined price, but the subsidy for such consumers shall be held back with the respective oil marketing companies to be transferred at a later date, if the consumers joins the scheme.
From July 2015 onwards, there will be no subsidy on LPG cylinders across the country.
