The government made it clear that the subsidy of Rs 200 on LPG cylinders will be available only to the beneficiaries of Ujjwala scheme, the rest will have to buy LPG at market price only.
The central government recently announced a subsidy of Rs 200 on LPG gas. However, now the government has clarified that this subsidy is only for 9 crore poor women and other beneficiaries who get free connections under the Ujjwala scheme. Rest of the people will have to buy LPG at market price only.
Oil Secretary Secretary Pankaj Jain said that from June 2020, no subsidy is given on LPG and now only that subsidy is won which was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 21. He said, “There was no subsidy for LPG customers since the initial days of the corona epidemic. Since then this subsidy has been announced for Ujjwala beneficiaries.”
On May 21, Finance Minister Sitharaman had announced to reduce the excise duty on petrol by Rs 8 per liter and on diesel by Rs 6 per liter with the intention of reducing inflation. Along with this, he also announced a subsidy of Rs 200 per cylinder for 12 cylinders in a year to the beneficiaries of Ujjwala scheme.
The cost of 14.2 kg LPG cylinder in the capital Delhi is Rs 1,003. Beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana will get a subsidy of Rs 200 directly in their bank account and the effective price for them will come to Rs 803 per cylinder. For the rest, it will cost Rs 1,003 in Delhi.
Nirmala Sitharaman told at that time that the government would have to spend Rs 6,100 crore to provide gas subsidy of Rs 200 to Ujjwala beneficiaries. “Subsidies by definition are not designed to increase continuously, but to decrease over time,” Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said at the same press conference.
According to a report, there are about 30.5 crore LPG connections in the country at present. Out of this, 9 crore connections have been provided under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.
