More than 60 per cent of LPG customers in the country have joined the ambitious PAHAL scheme for receiving cash subsidy so that they can buy cooking gas (LPG) at market price.
Over 9 crore consumers, out of a total customer base of 15.33 crore, have joined the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL) scheme and Rs 2,262 crore in cash has been transfered to them, an official statement said here.
"The DBTL Scheme for LPG consumers (PAHAL) was launched on November 15, 2014 in 54 districts and in the rest of the country on January 1, 2015. The Scheme aims to transfer the subsidy on LPG directly into the bank accounts of over 15 crore LPG consumers," it said.
With Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas intensively monitoring the roll out of the scheme at various levels, "as on date, 9 crore consumers have already joined the Scheme and will receive subsidy directly into their bank accounts. This constitutes over 60 per cent of the LPG consumers in the country", it said.
So far, an amount of Rs 2,262 crore has been transferred as subsidy and permanent advance in over 7 crore transactions to the LPG consumers, it added.
LPG consumers have time till March 31 to join the scheme, failing which they will not get any subsidy and will be forced to buy LPG at market rate.
