PAHAL, LPG SUBSIDY AND AADHAAR
Availing LPG subsidy is your choice. You can even opt out of it if you can afford it. LPG subsidy does not need Aadhaar card, but if you have it, it must be submitted.
Read the details of modified Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, now being rolled out by the Modi government.
Shree D N, 24 Dec 2014 , Citizen Matters
We wrote about the detailed procedure for linking Aadhaar card with bank accounts and LPG accounts a year ago. This was when the UPA Government had launched the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, the scheme where LPG subsidy is transferred directly into bank accounts. A pilot run was conducted in Tumakuru, Mysuru and Bengaluru. Due to elections and various other issues the scheme did not take off then. The newly-elected NDA Government has decided retain the scheme, and has already launched a pilot once again in 54 districts across India, including Tumakuru, Mysuru and Bengaluru. This scheme will ensure that subsidy for gas will henceforth not be given on direct cash payment, when you receive the gas. You will have to shell out the market price, while the subsidy will be credited to you by the government via bank transfer. The websites and links have changed now, and so have the terms for cash transfer. Hence we are publishing an updated version of our article once again with the correct links and updated information. Why is the government pushing for direct transfer of subsidies? There are many types of scams that take place in the sale of LPG. For example: A household has an allocation of 12 cylinders. But not all houses need 12 cylinders per year. Some vested interests who are aware of the consumption patterns, oftentimes the gas agencies themselves, book cylinders in the customer’s name and sell it to commercial ventures such as hotels. Customer is not aware of this transaction and it does not affect him too. In this transaction, the Government becomes the loser, as the government provides subsidy for these cylinders. Those who sell it benefit twice, by getting the subsidy as well as the extra profit that they get by selling it at a higher price. This money is unaccounted, and just adds to the black money existing in the country. There are customers who have multiple connections in their houses and indulge in black marketing of LPG. There is a possibility of fake LPG connections too, that are obtained by providing fake address etc. This system tries to make sure the subsidy goes to only to genuine customers. How much time do I have to register? The scheme has been named PAHAL. The customers who are unable or unwilling to register themselves for the scheme before February 14th 2015, will receive cooking gas at subsidised price only till February 14th 2015. For the next three months, they have the chance to register themselves to avail subsidy. They will receive LPG at market price and will be reimbursed the subsidy if they register themselves before May 15th 2015. If you don’t register yourself by May 15th 2015, you will become ineligible for receiving the subsidy amount in your bank account. How to become eligible for subsidy transfer? First and foremost, you need to have the LPG connection in your name. If it is in the name of any other family member, then they have to follow the below steps—not you. You, or the one who has LPG connection, should also have a bank account in your/his/her own name. If not, then hurry up now and get a bank account as soon as possible. I have already linked my Aadhaar card to bank account and LPG account. Do I need to re-apply? Check whether your LPG connection is Aadhaar-enabled and eligible for cash transfer of subsidy. You can do this by logging on to mylpg.in, choosing your LPG distributor and by clicking on the option ‘Check DBTL(CTC) status’. This option is available on all LPG service providers’ websites. How to open bank account quickly? Getting bank accounts has been made easy with Pradhan Mantri Jandhan Yojana. The FAQ section in PM Jandhan Yojana website says that, if you have Aadhaar card, that is all you need to submit to the bank, alongwith application form. If your address is different from the one on the Aadhaar card, you have to provide a valid address proof for current address, such as phone bill or electricity bill, or submit a self-declaration of changed address. If you have no Aadhaar card, you can open the bank account by providing an address proof and identity proof. How to get the application forms? There are two types of Direct Benefit Transfer method: One is Aadhaar-based, another is non-Aadhaar-based. For Aadhaar-based method, you need to acquire and fill the bank linking form called as Form 1 and Aadhaar and LPG-linking form, Form 2. These can be found on the PAHAL (Direct Benefit Transfer) section of Petroleum and Natural Gas website in this link, by choosing Option 1—the blue button on left hand side, or clicking here. For non-Aadhaar-based method, you have form 3 and Form 4 which can be downloaded by clicking on the Option 2 on PAHAL section of Petroleum and Natural Gas website. They are also available on individual websites for LPG service providers, which you access by logging in to mylpg.in, accessing the section for your distributor and clicking on DBT-related links. When you click on the link for Form 1, either a form will appear in a new tab or the form will automatically be downloaded. So check your downloads section before deciding that the website doesn’t work. You can also take the forms from your LPG distributor. The full-page newspaper advertisements issued by UIDAI too have the form, which you can cut and use. How to register for Direct Benefit Transfer? Aadhaar card-based Direct Benefit Transfer is applicable to the LPG account holders who have an Aadhaar card. Those who do not have Aadhaar card can go for non-Aadhaar-based method, by linking their bank account directly to LPG account. Aadhaar-based Direct Benefit Transfer Step 1: Link your bank account to Aadhaar card The consumer under whose name the LPG is registered needs to fill the form 1. Give the exact 12-digit Aadhaar number in the form. You have to attach a copy of Aadhaar letter/ card while submitting the form to the bank. The form can be deposited personally at home branch of your bank i.e. where your account is registered. Alternatively, you can also link your Aadhaar Number with your bank account through your distributor. Fill the form “Bank Account – Aadhaar Linkage Form (For LPG Consumer only)” and drop it in “Bank Form Drop Box” kept with your distributor. The forms are also available with your distributor. If you submit the form personally at bank, an acknowledgment slip will be handed over to you, and you are sure your application is in the safe hands. Step 2: Get your LPG linked to Aadhaar card The final step is to link your Aadhaar number with your LPG consumer number. For this, you need to be ready with two things. Name of the distributor Your 17-digit LPG Consumer Number. You can find consumer number on your first page of DGCC booklet or on the recent cash memo handed over to you by the delivery boy. The 17-digit number can be obtained by clicking HP, Indane and Bharat Gas websites and entering the required details. Fill the Form 2 in capital letters using blue or black ink. It needs to be accompanied by two attachments: Copy of the first page of DGCC booklet or recent cash memo. Photocopy of the proof of current address, if the address is different from what is given in Aadhaar card. Terms simplified: Scroll of honour: This is where the LPG distributors will display the names of people who opted out of LPG subsidy, as a token of appreciation for their contribution in nation-building. Form 1: Form to link your Aadhaar number to your bank account, to be submitted to the bank branch. Form 2: Form to link Aadhaar number to LPG account, to be submitted to the LPG distributor. Form 3: Form to link LPG account to bank account directly without Aadhaar card, to be submitted to the bank branch. Form 4: Form to link LPG account to bank account directly without Aadhaar card, to be submitted to the LPG distributor. Unified form: A combination of all the above forms, which you can fill according to the applicability in your case and submit to the applicable agencies. This is currently found only in the Bharat Gas transparency portal. Address proof can be any of the following: Aadhaar (UID) letter Lease agreement Telephone bill Electricity bill or any other utility bill Self declaration attested by Gazette Officer Flat allotment or Possession letter LIC policy Driving license Voter ID Passport Ration card House registration document. Please note that before you submit the form, you need to take a combined photocopy of Aadhaar letter and the filled Form 2. You are required to place the original Aadhaar letter on the left hand side, while your Form 2 will be on the right side adjacent to it. The final combined photocopy must have your photo of the Aadhaar letter running on the left side corner with the bar code details. Six options for handing over the application: By Hand: Submit Form 2 to the LPG distributor directly. Via Call Centre: Call 1800-2333-555 and follow the insructions to register the Aadhaar Number On Internet: Log on to www.rasf.uiadai.gov.in and follow the procedure By Post: Send Form 2 along with enclosures to Area office address. Indane area-office addresses HP area office addresses Bharat area office addresses By IVRS Indane Gas(IOC): 8970024365 HP Gas (HPC): 9964023456 Bharat Gas (BPC): 9483356789 SMS: Registration is just a text away. For this, first, you need to register your number with the Oil Company/ Gas agency. Please note that Bharat Gas customers should register the mobile number before hand. Once their number is registered manually with the authorities they can register their Aadhaar number via text. For HPC/ IOC customers: REG distributor telephone number with STD code without zero consumer number (e.g. REG 1187654321 564321) Once the mobile number is registered to LPG consumer number, customers of all the three Oil Companies can link the Aadhaar number via text. You need to type: UID Aadhaar Number (eg. UID 32323232323232). The above text should be sent to the respective companies, to the numbers listed below: IOC (Indane Gas): 8970024365 HPC (HP Gas): 9964023456 BPC (Bharatgas): 57333 or 52725 You will immediately receive a confirmation saying your Aadhaar number is registered. For methods other than SMS, a confirmation will be sent to you in seven days. However you can anytime check your linkage status on the concerned Oil company websites For HP, click here: http://myhpgas.in/myHPGas/HPGas/CheckAadharStatus.aspx For Indane, click here:indane.co.in/aadhaarcheck.php For Bharat, click here: http://my.ebharatgas.com/bharatgas/ConsumerAadhaarStatus.faces Finally, check with your bank and ensure your bank account is Aadhaar-enabled. Non-Aadhaar-based Direct Benefit Transfer This facility is available only for those who do not have the Aadhaar card. You will be giving a declaration in form 4 when you submit it to the LPG dealers, which states that you do not hold an Aadhaar card. The declaration also says that you agree to submit Aadhaar card the moment you have it with you. Step-by-step instruction: Log on to mylpg.in Choose the LPG service provider. Click on Join DBT link on the service provider’s transparency portal. Select the second option that says: ‘If you do not have Aadhaar Number Click here to join DBTL’ Here, you are given two options to link your bank account to LPG account directly. Submitting details to LPG distributor: You can submit your bank account details in the prescribed Form 4 directly, to the LPG distributor. For this, you need to check whether your bank is on NACH platform. (NACH platform is National Automated Clearing House platform, implemented by National Payments Corporation of India, to enable the government to to facilitate interbank, high volume, electronic transactions which are repetitive and periodic in nature. If your bank is not on the platform, you need to open an account in a bank that is on this platform.) You can also choose to register with the LPG service provider and submit the details online. Submitting details to bank branch: Submit your 17 digit LPG ID details in Form 3. If your bank does not feature in this list, you need to open a bank account in the banks in the list. Instead of Form 3 or Form 4, you can also go for unified PAHAL form which is applicable for Aadhaar-based and non-Aadhaar-based linkages. This form can be submitted to banks and/or LPG distributors. The instructions are in the form itself. What happens if I have an Aadhaar card, but opt to link my bank account to LPG directly? When you submit your details through Form 3 or Form 4 or through unified form, you will be giving a declaration that you do not possess an Aadhaar card as on date. You are also declaring that you will provide the details of Aadhaar card to the bank if you get an Aadhaar card. Direct linking of bank to LPG account is applicable only for those who don’t have Aadhaar card. If you have an Aadhaar card, then you cannot link your bank account directly to LPG. If you submit false declaration, it is easy to track it down, because the details given to Aadhaar card would somewhere be overlapped with the details you would have given to your bank to open your account. What happens if I don’t link my bank account to LPG account? You will continue to get LPG cylinders at market rate, but no subsidy will come back to you. The subsidy is hardly Rs 6,000 per annum at the current LPG price, considering that you can book 12 cylinders in a year. If you use less cylinders, it will be less. Market price per cylinder is Rs 800, while the subsidy per cylinder is around Rs 400 as on date. So the maximum subsidy you get per year can be Rs 4,400. Considering the amount people spend if they enter the Pizza Hut or a good hotel for one meal, it is not such huge amount. How do I opt out of LPG subsidy? As the transparency portals of HP, Indane and bharat Gas put it, if you can afford to pay the market rate for this highly subsidised commodity, you can do so. Thereby you will save the government so much money which can be used for some other public good. Click on the Opt out of subsidy link in the transparency portal of your distributor, to opt out. The portals also have ‘Scroll of honour’ where they display your name with your permission, if you opt out of PG subsidy. Opting out of LPG also saves you the hassle of revealing your bank account to the system. What happens when the scheme starts? As soon as you book your first LPG cylinder, you will receive an amount equivalent to the subsidy in your bank account. This will be the advance subsidy that you can use for buying the cylinder at non-subsidised price. As soon as you get the first delivery of the cylinder, an amount equivalent to the subsidy will again be deposited to your account. This will be your subsidy for the next cylinder you book. This will continue for twelve cylinders in a year. After that if you book more cylinders, you will be eligible for the subsidy only in the next year. You have no option of having Aadhaar card and not link it to your LPG connection. You can link LPG connection directly to bank only if you have no Aadhaar card. If you are using gas connection in somebody else’s name, that person needs to link his/her LPG account number to his/her bank account. The subsidy will come to that account only. If the person in whose name the connection exists is not alive/ relocated or not available for all these processes, the subsidy will not be provided to anyone. Best part of the scheme is, if at all somebody else books LPG using your consumer number in your absence, or without your knowledge, you might lose one cylinder from your quota. But your account will receive subsidy, and you are not obliged to pay it back to anyone! So far, those who booked gas like this and sold it in black market got away without being caught, even when they used the subsidy meant for you. This measure effectively curbs black marketing of LPG and provides the subsidy to the beneficiary directly. To know more about Direct Benefit Transfer, its terms and benefits,click here. 26.12.2014: Updated the article on reader feedback, for clarity. - Editor Write to Author · Write to Editor Shree D N Shree D N is Associate Editor, Citizen Matters.
