The Hindu Business Line : Aiyar calls meeting to review LPG shortage

The Minister for Energy of Thailand, Mr Viset Choopiban, calling on the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, in the Capital on Wednesday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Oct. 5

CONCERNED with the persistent diversion of subsidised liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the Petroleum Minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Wednesday said that he would be meeting the stakeholders, including the oil companies, on Thursday to discuss the issue, and possibly work out a mechanism to check the diversion.

The Government is also reviewing the order to regulate LPG distribution, as it has not been able to check diversion of subsidised fuel. While accepting that the move to regulate LPG had led to its scarcity in certain parts of the country, the Minister stressed that the diversion had be checked.

However, the Minister ruled out the option of giving subsidised LPG to the commercial sector. "We are not going to provide subsidised LPG to commercial sector," he said. On whether there was a freeze on new connections, the Minister said new LPG connections had not been closed. The Government had restricted the number of LPG cylinders per distributor and frozen issue of new cylinders in some areas, he added.

The order issued early this year to check diversion and black marketing of subsidised fuel has not been effective as LPG cylinders meant for domestic use were being diverted for commercial use. The order restricted the number of refills available with the LPG distributor to the customer base in his area. The deliberate restriction was to ensure that demand of genuine domestic consumers was met and pilferage checked, he said. Besides, the Government wanted the semi-urban and rural areas get more LPG. However, the subsidised LPG was being diverted for use in commercial establishments, restaurants and for automobiles, the Minister added.

LPG for commercial use is priced at market rates, that is, at least Rs 100 per cylinder higher than the retail price of domestic LPG. A ceiling of LPG connection based on the customer database has been set for every distributor and new connections are issued only if the present customer base is lower than the ceiling.

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