Women's day: PM Modi announces Rs 100 cut in price of cooking gas cylinders

Price of domestic LPG cylinder to be Rs. 803 in Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced a Rs 100 cut in cooking gas cylinder prices. The announcement coincides with International Women's Day, celebrated globally on March 8.

“Today, on Women's Day, our government has decided to reduce LPG cylinder prices by Rs 100. This will significantly ease the financial burden on millions of households across the country, especially benefiting our Nari Shakti,” the PM tweeted.

Officials at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said the price cut will be implemented beginning Saturday.

The announcement has reduced the price of 14.2 kg liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders in Delhi to Rs 803. The price cut will also be applicable to beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) scheme, who will now receive cylinders at Rs 503 in Delhi.

The latest cut is the second reduction in cooking gas prices in 6 months.

On August 30, 2023, domestic LPG cylinder prices were cut across all markets by Rs 200. In Delhi, for instance, the decision brought down the cost of a 14.2 kg cylinder to Rs 903 per cylinder.
 

Before this, the price had last changed in March 2023, when it was raised by Rs 50. The price was raised in July 2022 before that.

Ujjwala push

On Thursday, the Cabinet approved an extension of the PMUY scheme, the government's targeted cooking gas subsidy scheme, by a year to 2024-25-end. It provides a subsidy of Rs 300 per 14.2-kg cylinder.

PMUY was announced in May 2022 as a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households. They would otherwise be using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow dung and cakes.

It initially covered 90 million beneficiaries for up to 12 refills for 2022-23. The subsidy was extended by a year to March 2023 at a total cost of Rs 7,680 crore.

In October last year, the government expanded the support under PMUY by Rs 100 to Rs 300.