Bid to perk up rural LPG use

Bid to perk up rural LPG use

State-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) – concerned about the low purchase levels of LPG refills by households that have got cooking gas connection under the Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) – have decided to walk the extra mile, literally.

The OMCs have asked all rural distributors, irrespective of the business volume, to deliver cylinders to the houses of consumers to encourage them to take refills.

“Only 10-12 per cent of consumers enrolled under the PMUY scheme are taking refills. This is an area of concern. The government wants consumers to permanently shift to LPG from traditional chullah. We are encouraging distributors to bridge the last-mile connectivity,” Ranjan Mahapatra, the state-level co-ordinator for the oil industry, said.

The three OMCs – Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum – have provided 30 lakh connections under the scheme within nine months of the launch, well ahead of the one-year target set by oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who had flagged off the scheme on August 14, 2016.

Even though companies are on track to release 36 lakh connections this fiscal and the next, the response of consumers getting the subsidised connections has been tepid, casting shadow on the success of the mass-friendly scheme of the Narendra Modi-government.

Distributors are usually asked to undertake home delivery if they sell more than 1,500 cylinders a month because a high volume justifies the investment in a vehicle and a delivery person.

“There is no special financial incentive for home delivery. But because of the competitive pressure to expand the business, distributors are trying home delivery of cylinders,” Dilip Kumar Roy, chief regional manager of HPCL, said.

A section of the oil industry executives said the low purchase of refills might be a reflection of the poor purchasing power of rural Bengal.

Mahapatra, who is also the executive director (Bengal State Office) of Indian Oil Corporation, differed. “During our visit to the rural households, we have seen that a family spends Rs 800-900 on alternatives (wood, cow dung, coal etc). I believe it is a matter of awareness. Hopefully, the conversion will pick up faster as more people join and peer pressure builds up,” he said.

https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170516/jsp/business/story_151791.jsp