Nikhil Deshmukh, TNN | Jul 13, 2015, 02.43AM IST
KOLHAPUR: As many as 4,190 residents of the district have given up the subsidy on cooking gas. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to the people from higher income groups to give up the subsidy.
There are as many as 7,38,576 LPG consumers in the district of three companies Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd ( BPCL) and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). At present, the government is providing a subsidy of around Rs 450 -500 per cylinder for domestic purpose.
District supply officer Vivek Agawane said, "The consumers who have given up their subsidy are now buying domestic cylinders at open market price, which is as high as Rs 1,000. The price varies every month as per the fluctuations in the international market prices of crude oil, which is the base of cooking gas."
Around three years ago, the Union government came up with a plan to transfer cash into the accounts of LPG consumers instead of issuing subsidy to the cylinder-distributing companies. One of the reasons for doing so was the inflated figures of consumers, which were used to gain more subsidy benefit. Besides, there were allegations that these companies or their distributors at the city-level were earning huge black money out of it but providing fake accounts of the consumers.
Thereafter, the Union government launched the Aadhaar card scheme and asked the people to link their unique identification number with LPG and bank accounts. By doing so, the customers would get subsidy amount transferred into their bank accounts every time they buy cylinder.
However, only 4% of the domestic LPG consumers have successfully linked their Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts and with the distributor companies under the direct benefit transfer scheme.
Agawane said, "The government has asked the revenue officials to feed the entire data of ration card with the cylinder distribution company and it has to be linked with the Aadhaar number of the head of the family. It is a tedious process as the information varies as the ration card data is not updated. Some people have passed away but the benefits on their name are still being availed."
The district administration has appealed to the people with good income background to give up their claim over the subsidy in a bid to save the government's expenditure so that the amount can be utilized for other purposes.
Sources said the administration is planning to undertake a massive awareness drive soon to appeal to and convince the people about giving up the subsidy. "It will not only save the taxpayers' money but gradually help in developing a price conscious mindset towards the services. Once people start paying the actual cost of cylinders, they will use it judiciously and wastage can be avoided," they said.
