Families Earning over 10 Lakhs Will No Longer be Entitled for LPG Subsidy, Says Central Ministry

Subsidized LPG cylinders or cooking gas will not be available to the taxpayers who are earning more than 10 lakhs a year, said the Government yester. Following this, a statement of mandate is released from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas that says that the new rule will be implemented from January 2016 onwards.
As per the current regulation, consumers, irrespective of their annual income are entitled to 12 cylinders at subsidized rates in a year. In case, any family needs more than the given amount, need to buy the cylinder paying the market price.


In a recent tweet, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "Government has decided that consumers with taxable income above Rs 10 lakh per year will not get LPG subsidy from January 2016. " He has further said that, this is as per policy of present Government that subsidy shall only be given to poor people who need it the most," he said in another tweet.

As of the recent measures that the Central Government has adopted in order to reduce the acquisition of the subsidized cooking gas, "GiveitUp" campaign has reaped fruitful outcome. Some 57 lakhs of families have voluntarily given up their subsidy, as per the available statistics. According to the Government, GiveitUp campaign is a noble initiative adopted by the Modi Government in order to benefit the poor. Giving up the subsidy can help the government to provide the subsidized cylinders to the poor, who cannot afford a cylinder at the market price. Thus, a family giving up the subsidy can help a poor getting cooking gas at reduced or the subsidized rate.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged "MPs, MLAs, ministers, IAS and IPS officers, professors and professionals" to give up subsidy on cooking gas to benefit the poor. "Gas cylinders surrendered by you can be transferred to the poor who use wood for cooking. If one crore people give up their LPG subsidy, one crore poor people will benefit," Modi said in Bengaluru.
Statistics reveal that the subsidy, thus saved from the 'GiveitUp' campaign went into giving connections to lakhs of poor families who were hitherto dependent on the difficult means of kerosene, coal, fuel wood or cow dung.

Due to a crash in global energy prices, the price variation between subsidised and non-subsidised LPG cylinders has significantly declined over the past couple of months. This also has a drastic impact on the number of families usually entitled for the subsidised cooking gas. The latest measures of the government is expected to bring significant well-being of the country.

As of now, the non-subsidised cooking gas costs Rs 606.50 a cylinder in Delhi, and subsidised LPG costs Rs 417.82 per 14.2-kg cylinder.