The Center is trying its best through state governments to equitably supply scarce liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to commercial customers such as community kitchens, dhabas and migrant workers while maintaining supplies for local consumers, amid the ongoing war in West Asia, an official familiar with the matter said on Monday.
In an update on fuel availability, Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary, Petroleum Ministry, said supplies of natural gas for domestic consumers and CNG for transportation are being fully met on priority.
Industrial and commercial consumers connected to the gas network also receive 80% of the fuel they used to consume. India meets about 50% of its natural gas consumption through domestic output. The rest is imported from different geographical regions, including West Asia, America, Russia and Australia.
Sharma said the government has advised city gas distribution (CGD) entities to give priority to commercial connections and has also written to states on the matter and discussed allocating 10% additional gas for pipelined natural gas (PNG) expansion. “As a result of these efforts in the past three weeks, approximately 3.5 thousand domestic and business connections have been installed or activated in PNG,” she added.
“LPG supply remains a concern,” she said, adding that there was no disruption at any LPG distributor. She also said that there has been a decline in panic booking on LPG, and deliveries to consumers are normal. According to Sharma, bookings have come down significantly from around 8.8 million on March 13 to around 5 million now.
On the status of commercial LPG supplies, she said there was a proposal to give an additional 10% LPG to state governments if they helped expand PNG’s network in their states. Initially, the government proposed an allocation of 20% of commercial LPG, and then allocated an additional 10%.
On March 21, the government issued another order, allocating a total of 50% of commercial consumption of LPG to states. The recent allocation has been for LPG supplies to restaurants, dhabas, hotels, industrial canteens, food processing, dairy units, canteens, subsidized outlets run by state and local governments, community kitchens and 5 kg Free Trade LPG (FTL) for migrant labour. “So far, about 15,800 tons of commercial LPG have been transported,” she added.
The trial launch of 5 kg FTL cylinders was done in 2013 by state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs). It was made available nationwide in 2014, and was rebranded as ‘Chhotu’ in 2020. It was intended to cater to specific segments such as migrant workers without current address proof and young professionals, according to a statement issued by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on December 11, 2020.
The Union government is coordinating with states and union territories (UTs) to ensure supply as per the envisaged priority and check diversion, black marketing and hoarding. States have a responsibility to monitor supply under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA) and the LPG Control Order. It directed all district collectors and food and civil supplies (FC&S) officials to take regular enforcement action on a daily basis.
Sharma said enforcement measures included about 2,400 raids and the confiscation of more than 800 cylinders during the past 24 hours. “Major actions have been reported in Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, including seizures, FIRs and arrests,” it said. She said state-run OMCs conducted more than 2,600 surprise inspections at retail outlets and LPG distributors across the country over the weekend. So far, about 550 FIRs have been registered and about 150 people have been arrested, she added.
