Murli Deora

NEW DELHI: Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora said in the Lok Sabha on Thursday that it had been decided ``in principle'' to re-work and restrict the subsidy on kerosene distributed through the Public Distribution System (PDS) to only the families living Below the Poverty Line (BPL).

The Government had accepted the recommendation of the Rangarajan Committee that there should be a restriction on the subsidy on PDS kerosene to BPL families, he said.

The modalities to implement the decision and rationalise the allocation of PDS kerosene among States and Union Territories was under the consideration of the Government and details were being worked out.

Stating there was no overall shortage of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and adequate supply was available, Mr. Deora said LPG supplies to distributors were being made by the pubic sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) through indigenous production and imports in accordance with the genuine demands of customers.

In the first 10 months of 2006-07, a total of 46.76 lakh new LPG connections and 9.97 lakh double bottle connections were released by the OMCs. The number of domestic LPG connections went up from 7.72 crore on April 1, 2004 to 9.25 crore on January 1 this year.

Mr. Deora, however, acknowledged that at times owing to operational problems, occasional backlogs did occur.

The OMCs had reported a backlog of two to four days in three States due to reasons such as disruption in supplies on account of heavy rain, labour unrest in Kerala resulting in closure of bottling plants and increased demand on account of Holi festival.

Directions had been issued to the OMCs to liquidate the backlog by even operating the bottling plants on holidays and during extended hours, he said.

The shortfall in domestic production of kerosene and LPG was met through imports by the OMCs, Mr. Deora added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail