The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) has resulted in a seemingly simple mechanism of providing universal access to cooking gas. This has transformed the lives of the destitute, empowering them through socio-economic inclusion, according to a study Lighting up Lives through Cooking Gas and transforming Society by Professor SK Barua, former Director and Faculty member, IIM-A.

But the Ujjwala connections were disbursed when the price of crude oil was declining and the Centre must be wary of unaffordable LPG in the event of a price shock, said Barua.

“The PMUY is being implemented when the crude and LPG prices in the international market are benign. If these were to rise in the future, then LPG cost will rise for the BPL families, unless the subsidy is increased to nullify the rise in price. Increase in cost may result in these families going back to traditional fuel. Preventing such relapse will require the government to set aside more funds for energy subsidy,” said the report. He added that the success of the PMUY is on the back of better co-ordination between government departments. The study said, “The government system represented by officials from the Central government, the State governments, and the village heads (Sarpanchs) helped in identifying BPL beneficiaries and in mobilising people to accept the idea of switching over to LPG from traditional fuels for cooking…The scale and speed of implementation were achieved through excellent coordination between the government system, the government-owned Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and the banking system.”

Commenting on the report, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that the scheme is a win-win situation for all the stakeholders- the government, OMCs, distributors, banks and consumers, as it has a good impact on economy, society, environment and health. Pradhan said that the government will meet the scheme’s eight crore connections target by the next financial year.

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