10 mn give up LPG subsidy, says govt

Oil companies save Rs 5,178 crore

As many as 10 million households have surrendered their cooking gas subsidy, leading to savings of around Rs 5,178 crore for the government on the petroleum subsidy bill, the petroleum ministry has said. This comes about a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the GiveItUp campaign, urging the well-to-do to voluntarily surrender the subsidy.

The ministry will on Friday officially announce the achievement at an event.

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The latest numbers indicate each of the 10 million families has shed an annual subsidy worth around Rs 5,000 on an average. The initiative has been on since 2012, but picked up pace in 2014, thanks to the massive door-to-door campaign run by the ministry.

Indane, the cooking gas service of the nation's largest fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), alone accounts for 35 per cent or Rs 1,705 crore of the savings accrued to the three oil marketing companies (OMCs). Bharat Petroleum Corporation's Bharat Gas clocked savings of Rs 1,804 crore, while Hindustan Petroleum Corporation's HP Gas has accounted for the rest of the savings of Rs 1,668 crore so far.

The number of those who gave up the subsidy grew from 2,500 in August 2014 to 12,471 in December that year. However, over the next six months till June 2015, the number grew to 764,266. Modi had launched the campaign on March 27, 2015, saying more than 280,000 people had given up the subsidy leading to savings of around Rs 100 crore in the initial 10 months of his government.

OMCs lost Rs 11,000 crore between April and December in the previous financial year on subsidised LPG sales to around 150 million registered consumers. Each such consumer is entitled to 12 subsidised cylinders in a year, each of which is available at Rs 419 in Delhi.

Any requirement above that is to be met through purchase of cooking gas at the market price of Rs 513 per bottle. Consumers can opt out of the subsidy by submitting a written request to the distributor or electronically via mylpg.in.