Below-poverty-line (BPL) families in the State have received a Diwali gift from the Maharashtra Government in the form of three additional subsidised cooking gas cylinders, bringing the total number of subsidised cylinders to 9.

The State Cabinet on Wednesday decided to add on the extra cylinders to families having an income of less than Rs 1 lakh a year .

With this dole, the State Government will incur an additional subsidy burden of about Rs 1,200 crore. It will further put a strain on State finances. The State is already under a Rs 1.10 lakh crore debt. The actual rollout of the subsidy is set to happen in the next fiscal.

Rider

The Maharashtra Government’s largess to the BPL families has a rider — a cap has been retained in the fine print. For example, if a family has consumed eight cylinders between April 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013, then it would eligible for the same number of cylinders in the next fiscal.

In other words, the cap for this family would be retained at 8. However, if another family has only used 3 cylinders for the entire duration of the year, the cap would be set at 3 cylinders.

The cap for each family would be taken into consideration given their usage capacity and with a limit of 9 cylinders.

In September, the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had revised the subsidy norms on cooking gas cylinders. Across the country, consumers are eligible for only six subsidised cylinders per fiscal. They can buy additional cylinders at market rates.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that it would take a few months to work out the details of the scheme. Information about the BPL families is being collected from the oil marketing companies.

> rahul.wadke@thehindu.co.in

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