Covid-19 package offers eight 5kg cooking gas refills for free till June

Poor households using 5kg cooking gas cylinders will be entitled to eight free refills in three months as a relief from the disruptions due to the Covid-19 outbreak, while the number of free refills will be limited to three for beneficiaries using 14.2kg cylinders, an oil ministry spokesperson said.

The Rs 1.7 lakh crore Covid-19 welfare package that the government announced on March 26 (a day after a nationwide lockdown came into effect) specified only three free cooking gas cylinders to about 80 million poor households, which led to some confusion about the entitlement of number of refills for the beneficiaries using economical 5kg cylinders, he said.

“Those who are using small cylinders will get eight free cylinders in three months – April, May and June – under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY),” he said.

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Till now, oil marketing companies have initiated a transfer of Rs 5,606 crore into the bank accounts of more than 71 million Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) beneficiaries as advance in order to ensure that they can avail free delivery of LPG cylinder under the PMGKY, he said.

PMUY was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 1, 2016 in Ballia (Uttar Pradesh) to provide free cooking gas connections to 50 million poor households. Later the target was raised to 80 million households, which was achieved six months in advance on September 7, 2019.

An executive of India’s biggest fuel retailer, state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), said the company has transferred about Rs 2,780 crore in the bank accounts of its 37 million PMUY customers so that they can get the first cooking gas cylinder free of cost.

Along with the other two state-run companies – Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) – the public sector oil marketing companies have so far distributed 8.5 million cooking gas cylinders for free to poor households, the spokesperson said.

“Booking of 1.26 crore cylinders has been done in this month by the beneficiaries, out of which about 85 lakh cylinders have been delivered to PMUY beneficiaries. This is aimed at alleviating the hardships faced by poor due to economic disruption by coronavirus (COVID-19),” he said.

The number of active cooking gas customers (including beneficiaries of subsidy) in India are 27.87 crore.

“Since the lockdown, 50 to 60 lakh cylinders are being delivered daily in the country. When there is nationwide lockdown and the people are staying home to stay safe, LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] delivery boys and all those in the supply chain of LPG are working tirelessly to ensure that clean fuel reaches people directly at their homes,” he said.

Even in these trying times, the waiting period for cylinders at most of the places is less than two days, he added.

Oil marketing companies -- IOCL, BPCL and HPCL -- have announced an ex-gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh each, as a one-time special measure, in the unfortunate case of demise of personnel (showroom staff, godown-keepers, mechanics and delivery boys) attending duty in the LPG distributorship chain due to the infection and impact of Covid-19.