Raj Kumar Sahu, May 9, 2011 (New Delhi)
Your monthly budget is all set to soar as price of cooking fuels – LPG and kerosene – may get deregulated for families above the poverty line. This may happen soon if the recommendations of the task force on subsidies are accepted by the government.
NDTV has learnt that the task force announced in the Budget this year has said that the BPL families only use five LPG cylinders a year, whereas the affluent families who can afford to pay higher, use eight subsidised cylinders every year. Noting the disparity, the task force has suggested a cap on subsidised cylinders for non-BPL families.
For the BPL families, the panel has suggested direct transfer of subsidy amount in their bank account, either through UID or Universal Identification Number or through other means. Similar, mechanism has been suggested even for Kerosene, where the respective state governments would be responsible for disbursing the cash subsidy directly to the consumer on monthly basis.
Experts believe that implementation of these recommendations will result in savings of about Rs. 12000 crore on LPG alone and about Rs. 8,000 crore of saving on account of Kerosene. However, seeing the bleeding oil companies, experts believe it is not just LPG and kerosene but other fuel products as well which the government may have to deregulate completely.
"The time has finally come for government to bite the bullet. For last 4-5 years we have been delaying the price hike. But what will happen, most likely after the Bengal election is, there has to be a price hike in Petrol, Diesel and deregulation in LPG,” said T S Harihar, Sr Vice President at ICICI Securities.
The direct cash subsidy scheme is proposed to be implemented later this year with the first pilot projects in Delhi and Hyderabad. However, sources tell NDTV that even the empowered Group of Ministers meeting on Wednesday will also discuss the suggestions of the task force. Also, after the state elections, the government is gearing to take some tough decisions to move to a lower subsidy regime.
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