Consumers can buy more than 1 subsidised LPG cylinder a month

Consumers can buy more than 1 subsidized LPG cylinder a month

AFTER (he Government raised the annual quota of subsidised cooking gas. the Cabinet on Friday allowed consumers 10 buy more than one subsidised cylinder in a month. The government had raised die annual cap on supply of cheaper LPG from nine to 12 cylinders of 14.2-kg each on January 30. It was inferred this mean 1 one cylinder in a month. This led to protests as households do noi uniformly use one cylinder in a month and some require refills earlier. The Oil Ministry on Thursday moved a proposal for consideration of the Cabinet suggesting that consumers should have the freedom to book a refill after 21 days within the overall cap of 12 subsidised bottles in a year.

The Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed with the proposal. Raising the cap from nine to 12 cylinders will impose an additional financial burden of about Rs 3,801 crore per annum, they said. The government had initially capped the supply of subsidised LPG cylinders to six per household annually in September 2012 in a bid to cut its subsidy bill. The quota was raised to nine in January 2013. Consumers who exhaust their quota have to buy LPG at the market price of Rs 1.258 per cylinder.