Moily said there were complaints about implementation of the direct benefit transfer for LPG-DBTL scheme and a committee has been formed to look into the issue
Bowing to political pressure and hue and cry from common citizens, the Indian government on Thursday put on hold its scheme to transfer subsidy money into bank accounts of consumers through Aadhaar. The cabinet also raised the quota of subsidised LPG to 12 cylinders per household in a year from nine at present.
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily, while announcing the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, said the direct benefit transfer for LPG (DBTL) scheme, where consumers in as many as get 289 districts in 18 states got the subsidy amount in their bank accounts so that they could buy cooking gas at market rate, has been put on hold.
Currently, a subsidised LPG cylinder costs Rs414 while the market price comes to Rs1,021.
Explaining the reasons behind the move to put on hold a scheme that was dubbed 'game-changer, he said there were complaints about implementation of the scheme and a committee has been formed to look into them.
"Pending the committee examining the issues, the Aadhaar-linked LPG subsidy transfer has been put on hold," he said.
There had also been demands from within the Congress to scrap the DBTL as many consumers did not either have the Aadhaar number or banks accounts linked to the Aadhaar number.
DBTL, under which consumers got Rs435 advance money in their bank accounts so as to help them buy a LPG cylinder at market price, was this month extended to 105 districts including Delhi and Mumbai.
He said, households will get one cylinder extra, on top of the quota of nine cylinders, in February and March and from April they will be entitled for 12 cylinders -- one cylinder per month at subsidised rates.
Moily also said raising the LPG quota will cost Rs5,000 crore in additional subsidy annually.
Earlier this month, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session earlier this month asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to increase the quota of subsidised LPG to 12 cylinders of 14.2-kg each.
Moily said 89.2% of the 15 crore LPG consumers use up to nine cylinders in a year and only 10% have to buy the additional requirement at the market price.
After the quota is raised to 12, about 97% of the LPG consumers would be covered by subsidised LPG, he said.
The government had initially capped the supply of subsidised domestic LPG cylinders to six per household annually in September 2012 in a bid to cut its subsidy bill. The quota was raised to nine in January 2013.
Consumers, who have exhausted their quota, have to buy LPG at the market price of Rs1,258 per cylinder. Subsidised LPG costs Rs414 per cylinder in Delhi.
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2) Concerned authorities adamantly-stubbornly ignored to mention in Cash Receipt, Breakup details as follows,
Amount payable Rs. 1162 = Rs.423.50 + DBT Rs. 738.5
(Please Note: Actual amount for subsidized direct supply without DBTL scheme of Rs. 423.50 was obtained from Delivery Person after verifying the Cash Receipt for other Consumer.)
3) Accordingly the pending DBT amount to be received will be Rs. 738.5 - Rs. 435 = Rs. 303.5 (My worked out calculation. Rs. 435 first blind DBT already received.)
Concerned authorities forceful DBTL implementation without protecting the Consumer in all respect is highly objectionable.
Concerned authorities foremost duty is to work sincerely and faithfully for the authentic Domestic Consumers.
Concerned authorities should Stop DBTL if not interested to implement proper breakup in Cash Receipt for easy verification of DBT amount and actual subsidized cost of cylinder for Consumer.
Concerned should take up the matter urgently to help and protect authentic Domestic LPG Consumers.
All Indian Citizens forced under DBTL scheme for Domestic LPG supply are suffering due to irresponsible improper
implementation, leading to hardship and harassment by all concerned authorities, also leading to wasteful administration at all levels.
http://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/th...
2) Delivery cum Cash invoice receipt for subsidized supply of Gas Cylinder must have break up details of DBTL amount matching to subsidized supply applicable to supply without DBTL scheme.
3) Do not make supply of subsidized Gas Cylinder under DBTL unless and until properly implementing, totally transparent details of breakup as mentioned above in Delivery cum Cash invoice receipt.
4) No direct email IDs for LPG Consumer.
Concerned need to do the needful.
Even now if a provision to submit bank details and lpg registration numbers is provided on the aadhar site, it could be updated immediately and all the confusion and delay could be avoided. Now that the minister has put on hold the "linking" issue, he has not announced that till a decision is taken, the cylinders would be given to the customer at subsided rates and all "subsidy through banks" will be stopped. This is now creating two types of lpg customers - one who gets the cylinder at the subsidy price (non aadhar) and others who get it at a higher price as the subsidy is not matching the price difference.
Domestic Consumers shall be harassed by the all categories of Administrative Monarchs. Also leading to corruption, and noway of tracking and exposing it.
To prevent misuse of selling domestic LPG cylinders in open market for profit needs to be achieved by other strict measures and not by DBTL Scheme.
Also, increasing the subsidy on LPG will benefit both poor and not-so-poor who can very well afford to buy the LPG cylinders at market rates. Why doesn't the Govt create slabs (as done for Ration Cards) to benefit such welfare schemes only to the needy ? But then, populist measures like this is what one can expect in a pre-poll period.