New Delhi: After witnessing a rise in the number of subsidised LPG refills in the financial year 2020-21, thanks to the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), the trend has shown a decline in FY23. The average number of refills per year has declined to 3.7, down from 4.4 in FY21.
According to the Financial Express, in FY19 and FY20, the average number of LPG refills per year was three bottles, which rose to 4.4 bottles in FY21. In the subsequent two years, it dropped to around 3.7 refills per year.
The report noted that this decrease reflects the stagnant income levels among the beneficiaries. However, it added that some smaller households may not require more than four refills annually.
Out of the 95.9 million PMUY beneficiaries, 11.8 million (about 12%) did not get even a single LPG bottle during the last financial year, said minister of state of petroleum and natural gas, Rameswar Teli, in a statement to the Rajya Sabha.
Additionally, some beneficiaries used less than four bottles of cooking fuel during the year despite the government’s subsidy of Rs 200 per bottle for up to 12 bottles a year.
As of April 2023, the price of an unsubsidised domestic LPG bottle (14.2 kg) in Delhi stood at Rs 1,103.
As of July 1, 2023, there were approximately 95.9 million PMUY beneficiaries, out of which 84.1 million had taken at least one refill during the 2022-23 period, said Teli.
On August 1, 2022, Teli had told the Rajya Sabha that 9.2 million customers did not take any refill in 2021-22. The Union government had admitted that the PMUY beneficiaries had not been able to fill cylinders due to high prices of LPG.
Launched in 2016, PMUY aims to provide deposit-free LPG connections to adult women from poor households across the country.
The target of releasing 80 million connections was achieved in 2019, and the second phase, Ujjwala 2.0, added 16 million additional beneficiaries.
As per Census 2011, there are 315 million domestic LPG consumers in India, covering 105.1% of estimated households.
To promote the use of LPG, the government has implemented various measures, including subsidies that were extended for a year last March.
The updated household numbers are not available, as the Census 2021 has not been conducted, reported the ministry.
India imports over 60% of its domestic LPG consumption, and from 2020-21 to 2022-23, the average Saudi CP (international benchmark for LPG pricing) increased from $415 per million tonne (MT) to $712 per MT. However, the full increase in international prices was not passed on to Indian citizens, resulting in public sector oil marketing companies suffering under recoveries of about Rs 28,000 crore on the sale of domestic LPG.
To compensate for this, the government approved a one-time compensation of Rs 22,000 crore to OMCs in FY23.
The government’s subsidy for domestic LPG connections decreased from Rs 37,209 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 6,965 crore in FY23. This subsidy amount includes the expenditure on connections provided under PMUY, the report added.