Centre limits LPG subsidy to Ujjwala beneficiaries; all households to buy cooking gas at market price

entre has limited LPG subsidy to Ujjwala beneficiaries and all households shall have to buy cooking gas at market price.

Oil Secretary Pankaj Jain said there was no subsidy for LPG users since the initial days of the Covid pandemic, however, since then, has been introduced for Ujjwala beneficiaries.

Centre made cooking gas subsidy limited only to the 9 crore poor women and other beneficiaries who had received LPG connections under the Ujjwala scheme.

“No subsidy is paid on cooking gas since June 2020 and the only subsidy that is provided is the one that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on March 21,” Jain told media.

When reducing the excise duty on petrol by ₹8 per liter and diesel by ₹6 per liter, Sitharaman had announced that Ujjwala scheme beneficiaries will get ₹200 per cylinder subsidy for 12 bottles in a year to help ease some of the burden arising from cooking gas rates rising to record levels.

Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said subsidies by definition are not designed to get entrenched and increased. Subsidies by definition have to be degressive.

In Delhi, a 14.2-kg LPG cylinder costs ₹1,003. Under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, beneficiaries will get a ₹200 subsidy directly in their bank account. That means, Ujjwala beneficiaries only have to pay ₹803 on their purchase of a 14.2 kg cylinder, unlike the others who will pay for the cylinder at the market price of ₹1,003 in the national capital.