Thursday, March 5, 2015

Reimbursement of Subsidy Amount to LPG Consumers


The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that Government has not withdrawn the subsidy being given to the domestic LPG customers. It has introduced the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG (DBTL) scheme, namely, ‘PAHAL’. Under the Scheme, LPG consumers joining the scheme, will get the LPG cylinders at market price and will receive LPG subsidy (as per their entitlement) directly into their bank accounts.
The scheme was launched in 54 districts on 15.11.2014 and in rest of country on 01.01.2015. On joining the scheme every LPG consumer is at present entitled for a Permanent Advance (PA) of Rs 568/-, which is provided in addition to the prevalent subsidy on the date of delivery of each subsidized cylinder. This is to enable a LPG consumer buy the first cylinder under the scheme which is delivered at market determined price. All LPG consumers who have not joined the scheme, are given a grace period of three months from the date of launch to join the scheme. During grace period such consumers will get LPG as per their entitlement at subsidized price. Additionally, a period of three months beyond grace period known as parking period is given to LPG consumers for joining the scheme. During parking period such consumers will get cylinders as per their entitlement at market price and subsidy will be kept parked with OMCs. This parked subsidy would be released to consumer as soon as consumer joins the scheme. However, if a consumer joins the scheme after parking period, the parked subsidy would lapse and consumer will get subsidy from prospective date only.The scheme is aimed to transfer the subsidy benefit directly to beneficiary and curb diversion/black marketing of LPG cylinders.