LPG subsidy: At present, the government is giving gas subsidy on gas cylinders, but the benefit of this subsidy will be available only to the beneficiaries getting free gas under the Ujjwala scheme. While others will have to buy LPG cylinders at the market price.
Petroleum Secretary Pankaj Jain said during a press conference on Thursday that no subsidy is being given on LPG since June 2020. At the same time, the subsidy announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman regarding LPG is applicable for the beneficiaries of Ujjwala scheme.
Significantly, along with the announcement of reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel, the Finance Minister had also announced a gas subsidy of Rs 200 on 12 gas cylinders in a year to the beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme.
At present, the cost of a gas cylinder weighing 14.2 kg is Rs 1,003. A subsidy of Rs 200 will be sent every month by the government to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana after booking every cylinder. Accordingly, the cost of one gas cylinder will be Rs 800. 9 crore beneficiaries of Ujjwala scheme will get its benefit. The remaining more than 21 crore gas connection holders will have to buy gas cylinders at the market price.
At the same time, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the structure of subsidy is such that it gets cut over time. “At the definition level, subsidies tend to decrease over time. The government has gradually abolished the subsidy on petrol, diesel and kerosene and since June 2020, there is no subsidy on LPG cylinders either. However, no official announcement has been made by the government to end the LPG subsidy.
Whereas in the last one year, the LPG cylinder became costlier by Rs 103.50. Whereas in June 2020, the price was Rs 809. Puri also said that despite the increase in the gas price in the international market, the burden is not being passed on to the gas consumers.
Apart from this, Puri rejected the report which said that the beneficiaries of Ujjwala scheme are coming in less number to get refilled after the first gas cylinder is exhausted. According to the report, the number of consumers who fill only one gas cylinder in a year has come down from 1.81 crore in the year 2019-20 to 1.08 crore in 2021-22. At the same time, an average per capita consumption of 3.68 cylinders was done throughout the year.
