LPG UPDATE

90% of LPG Cylinders to be sold at subsidised rates: P. Lakshmi

The Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas Smt. P. Lakshmi informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), namely, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) have estimated (based on previous year consumption data) that 90% of cylinders will be sold at subsidized rates and annually only 10% of cylinders will be sold at market prices at current cap level of 9. This translates to saving fiscal subsidy and under recoveries on around 0.92 crore cylinders @ Rs.503.58/cylinder. She explained that the cap was implemented w.e.f. 14.09.2012. During the period Sep’12- Jan’13, OMCs registered a growth of -1.8% as compared to a growth of 6.9%, during Sep’11-Jan’12 in domestic LPG. On the other hand they have registered a growth of 12.5% during Sep-Jan’13 against 5.4% growth in corresponding period of previous year i.e. Sep-Jan’12 in sales of industrial LPG (NDNE). OMCs, she added, have reported that they are meeting the genuine demand of the customers registered with them. However, if backlog gets generated due to uncontrollable/ unavoidable reasons, the same is tided over by augmenting supplies to the affected markets by operating the bottling plants on Sundays/ holidays.