Cooking gas users may get to switch service providers

Cooking gas users may be able to seamlessly switch service providers soon just like they do with their mobile phone numbers, three people aware of the development said, with the government working to bring the household gas supply business of state-owned fuel marketers on the same platform.

Under the plan, a liquified petroleum gas (LPG) connection from Indian Oil Corp. Ltd can be transferred to Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL), or vice versa.

The three fuel retailers are jointly developing software to bring their entire liquified petroleum gas business data on the same platform, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.

This assumes significance given that India has 291.1 million LPG customers as of 1 July. Presently, the fuel retailers allow their customers to choose the LPG distributor for cylinder refills and online transfer of the connection to another distributor serving in the same area of their own network.

“A common database for LPG connection portability is being created,” said a senior government official, one of the three people cited above.

While portability within a fuel retailer’s network is online and seamless, that’s not the case if one needs to switch to another provider.

The process involves a physical surrender of the connection first and then going for a connection with the LPG distributor of another retailer, which at times becomes tedious and time-consuming.

“In case of inter-company connection transfer, both parent and destination distributor get advance intimation about consumer’s transfer request with tracking options for customers. However, the customer needs to visit the parent distributorship for surrendering of LPG equipment as accounting of equipment and security deposit is involved,” the oil ministry said in a 24 June 2019 statement.