LPG hard to come by

When Rakesh Rai went to a Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) LPG dealer in Delhi's Sarojini Nagar for a cylinder, he was told new connections were not being given out.

Even as Minister of State for Petroleum Dinsha Patel has told the Rajya Sabha that new connections are easily available for genuine customers, householders all over India are facing an acute shortage of LPG cylinders.

So much so that the waiting period for a replacement cylinder has been extended to one month from 15 days (though Patel says a backlog of "three to four days" existed only in Tamil Nadu).

Ironically, it's the consumer subsidy on LPG cylinders that is proving consumer-unfriendly because it has created an arbitrage opportunity for black marketers to divert supplies to industrial users.

Almost 95 per cent of the total LPG sold is subsidised for domestic use. The remaining is used for commercial purposes. Depending on fluctuations in global crude oil prices, the price difference between domestic and commercial cylinders has varied between Rs 161 and Rs 185 in the last two months.

The price of commercial LPG has been hovering between Rs 607 and Rs 640 (19zkg) over the last couple of months. Black marketers charge a premium of 70 per cent over the domestic price (Rs 450 to Rs 500).