Number of LPG consumers in India surge by 125 per cent in last 10 years

New Delhi, July 22 (IANS) The LPG infrastructure in India, over the last decade from 2014 to 2024, has surged with the bottling capacity shooting up by close to 70 per cent while the number of consumers has soared by nearly 125 per cent during this period, the Parliament was told on Monday. 

"India now has one of the most robust LPG supply infrastructure globally. Before April 2014, nearly 45 per cent of Indian households didn’t have access to clean cooking fuels and were constrained to depend on traditional fuels such as cow dung, biomass and firewood," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

Prices of cooking gas in India, after the latest round of reduction, are one of the lowest globally, and even lower than in most LPG-producing nations, he added.

The retail price of a 14.2 kg LPG cylinder in Delhi is around Rs 803 while its price in Pakistan, as on May 1 this year, is Rs 1,017.25. In Sri Lanka, the price of a 14.2 kg LPG cylinder is Rs 1,320.94 and in Nepal, it is Rs 1,207.84, the minister said.

As India imports more than 60 per cent of its domestic LPG consumption, prices of LPG in the country are linked to its price in the international market and the government continues to modulate the effective price to consumers for domestic LPG.

During the period 2020-21 to 2022-23, the average Saudi CP (the international benchmark for LPG pricing) went up from $415 per MT to $712 per MT. However, the increase in the international prices was not fully passed on to the customers.

The government has reduced the effective price of domestic LPG by Rs 200 per 14.2 Kg LPG cylinder with effect from August 30, 2023, the reply said.

Under the PAHAL Scheme, domestic LPG cylinders are sold at non-subsidised price and the applicable subsidy to the consumers is transferred directly into their bank accounts. Apart from the direct subsidy to bank accounts to consumers, the OMCs have also been compensated Rs 22,000 crore in FY 2022-23 by the government to cover the under-recoveries suffered by them in not passing on the high international prices to domestic LPG consumers, the ministry said.

With effect from May 21, 2022, the government has been providing budgetary support for the targeted subsidy of Rs 200 per 14.2 kg LPG cylinder for Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) beneficiaries for up to 12 refills a year for years 2022-23 and 2023-24. Moreover, from October 5, 2023, the targeted subsidy increased to Rs 300 per 14.2 kg LPG cylinder for all Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) beneficiaries.

The current retail price of domestic LPG at Delhi is Rs. 803 per 14.2 kg cylinder. With a targeted subsidy of Rs 300 per cylinder (and proportionately pro-rated for a 5 Kg cylinder), the effective cost for PMUY consumers is Rs 503 per 14.2 kg cylinder (at Delhi) currently.