The Petroleum Ministry is working on a new LPG distribution scheme to offset the losses in

selling cooking gas cylinders. According to the scheme, each consumer would get only five
cylinders per year at subsidised price. Any extra cylinder would be delivered at the market price.

At a meeting today with the marketing heads of state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs),
ministry officials dumped OMCs’ Plan B which was to provide subsidised LPG cylinders only to
families below poverty line with a subsidy component higher than the present Rs 260 per
cylinder.

Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan declined the concept of dual pricing saying that a sudden
increase in cooking gas prices for the majority consumers would not be politically acceptable. He
argued that the political masters were wary of price increase and had not implemented a hike of
Rs 100 per cylinder as suggested by the Kirit Parikh Committee.

Instead, he asked the OMCs to prepare a proposal — based on collected data — that 66 per cent
of the LPG consumers buy less than six cylinders each year. The OMCs have been asked to
break down the data to show the number of people consuming five cylinders per year to buttress
the argument.

Sundareshan has said in the past that the consumer would have to pay for what he consumes, and
a special scheme could be formulated to subsidise the weaker sections for kerosene and LPG.

The proposal is similar to the one that was rejected by the Cabinet Committee on Political
Affairs (CCPA) in June 2008.

Source : www.indianexpress.com
Scheme-2

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry on Tuesday launched, “Preferred Time LPG Delivery
Scheme,” which would allow professionals especially working men and women to get delivery
of their LPG cylinder at their own preferred time for a small premium.

Under the scheme, launched jointly by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Murli Deora and
his deputy, Jitin Prasada, the customer would not have to wait to take delivery of the cylinder as
it would be delivered at a time of his choice for a small premium of Rs. 50 a cylinder.

‘Scheme is optional'

“The scheme is completely optional and customers who do not opt for it will continue to get their
refills as per the current schedule,” Mr. Deora said.

The cylinder delivery would depend on the amount paid. The customer would be charged Rs. 50
for delivery sought before 8 a.m. or between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on any day of the week in metro
cities, and Rs. 25 for any time between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Customers in other cities and towns
would be charged Rs. 40 and Rs. 20 respectively.

On weekends (Saturday/Sunday), Rs. 25 would be charged extra for deliveries sought between 8
a.m. and 6 pm in metro towns, and Rs. 20 in other cities.

Mr. Prasada said the service was being launched in Delhi and the adjoining towns of Gurgaon,
Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Sonepat, besides Bengaluru and Pune.

It would be extended to Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad later this month and the rest
of the country would be covered by the end of this year.
Mr. Prasada said distributors failing to deliver the refill at a designated time or day would have to
pay Rs. 20 as penalty to the customer, besides forgoing the premium service fee. If a customer
missed the delivery on the scheduled day, it would be made during the same time band the next
day.

‘No jumping of queue'

“There will be no jumping of queue because of this extra payment. The schedule for normal
delivery will be maintained and this scheme is to help customers get that delivery on their
preferred time and day,” he said.