Oil marketing cos rope in common service centres for booking, re-filling LPG cylinders

In a move to push the distribution of LPG connections in rural areas, oil marketing companies (OMCs) Bharat Petroleum, India Oil and Hindustan Petroleum on Saturday authorised Common Service Centres to book and distribute gas cylinders.

These OMCs and common service centres Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate booking new connections, re-filling and delivery of LPG cylinders through three lakh Common Service Centres (CSCs) across the country.

As per agreement, the village level entrepreneurs (VLEs), who run CSCs franchisee in rural areas, will get Rs 20 for booking a new connection, Rs 2 for re-filling, Rs 10 for delivery at their CSC premise and Rs 19.5 per cylinder if the VLE delivers cylinder to the doorstep of customers, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

"LPG connections in the country are reaching to around 25 crore. Ujjwala accounts for 5.75 crore. The facility of refilling and distribution should increase. With our MoUs signed with common service centres today, we will get access to 1 lakh mini-distribution points with legal framework," Pradhan said.

He said whole transactions will take place online for which the servers of CSC Special Purpose Vehicle and OMCs have been integrated.

"This will increase door delivery. This will not be a charity or social work but work on business model. Companies were spending money for distribution and now distributors will share that revenue with CSC. Our delivery system will become more transparent," Pradhan said.

The arrangement between OMCs and CSCs will start as pilot in Odisha and one of north-eastern state for a few days.

"Pilot is for few days. Technology requirement for it is in place. This facility will be available across country in one-two months," Pradhan said.

There are 3.1 lakh CSCs across country but OMCs will initially start work with 1 lakh CSCs which are in deep rural areas.

Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad appreciated the agreement and the facility should be implemented by CSCs very well and create a model bigger than that of inclusion.

CSC e-Governance CEO Dinesh Tyagi said the new facility will increase income of the VLE to some extent but enhance credibility of CSCs significantly.