Till March next year, you’ll get only 3 subsidised LPG cylinders

The 6-cylinder cap on subsidised LPG per household is going to pinch middle class the hard way as oil companies say the consumers will get only three more subsidised cylinders for the remaining part of the current financial year. "LPG users will get only three subsidised cylinders in the remaining fiscal year starting today (September 14) till March 31, 2013," an official of Indian Oil said on Friday.

"Whether a consumer has used only one LPG cylinder or 10 till yesterday, he will be eligible for three subsidised ones for rest of the 2012-13," he said, adding that gas companies will be able to easily check the number of subsidised cylinders a household has availed.

"Since oil marketing companies have complete database of their customers, they will keep a check on the number of LPG cylinders used in a year," an oil company official said.

The Centre had yesterday put a restriction on the usage of subsidised cylinders to six a year and beyond this limit, consumers will have to pay market rate for getting the supply.

In Punjab, there are 59 lakh registered LPG connections against 54 lakh households while in Chandigarh, there are 3.80 lakh connections against 2.35 lakh households.

Meanwhile, oil marketing companies under the nationwide 'One Household and One LPG Connection' have been asking customers to surrender any multiple connections.

Customers have been given till September 15 to surrender their extra connections, otherwise erring consumers will be liable to face permanent disconnection and penal action under the Essential Commodities Act, the official said.

In Punjab and Chandigarh, oil companies have already blocked about 5 lakh and 1.08 lakh connections, respectively, which were multiple ones at the same address and not refilled for the last six months or more. "We are blocking all extra LPG connections," the official added.

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