Centre asks states to push shift from LPG to PNG where available

NEW DELHI: Citing losses incurred by oil marketing companies (OMCs) on domestic cooking gas cylinders and the additional financial burden on the government for providing subsidies to PMUY beneficiaries, petroleum secretary Neeraj Mittal has urged states and UTs to nudge LPG consumers to shift fully to piped natural gas (PNG) wherever available.In a letter to chief secretaries of states and UTs, Mittal said OMCs were incurring an under-recovery of Rs 690 per LPG cylinder, translating into annual losses of nearly Rs 1.4 lakh crore. This is in addition to govt’s annual subsidy bill of about Rs 19,000 crore on account of the Rs 300-per-cylinder subsidy provided to nearly 10.4 crore households under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).Recent disruptions in energy supplies through Strait of Hormuz amid the West Asia conflict had further underscored the need for accelerated measures to reduce dependence on LPG and promote use of PNG as a cooking fuel, but migration to the cleaner fuel had remained slow, he said.Though oil marketing companies and city gas distribution (CGD) entities have been mandated to serve notices to such households, Mittal said that “access constraints, consumer non-responsiveness and local issues” have reduced the impact of these efforts and adversely affected the pace of PNG adoption.“It is felt that active involvement of the district and urban body administration will improve the outreach of the ongoing efforts of the government in expanding the PNG network,” Mittal said, urging chief secretaries to issue instructions to district authorities and urban bodies to collaborate with state-level coordinators and CGD entities to encourage LPG consumers to shift to PNG.Mittal said consumers already having domestic PNG connections should also surrender their LPG connections, which would help prevent black marketing of cylinders and the unnecessary use of LPG in households where PNG is available.As per an initial assessment by the petroleum ministry in March, there were around 60 lakh households where new PNG connections could be activated. Till June 7, nearly 9.2 lakh piped gas connections had been activated, infrastructure had been created for another three lakh households, and 9.2 lakh new customers had registered for connections.Till June 10, 83,350 PNG consumers had surrendered their LPG connections on govt portal. The petroleum ministry is conducting an assessment of the actual number of households having both LPG and PNG connections.