Providing a big relief to the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) scheme, the Central government has announced a subsidy on domestic LPG gas cylinders. In the government-led scheme, the beneficiaries will now get cooking gas at cheaper rates.
According to the latest notification by the Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, the 9.59 crore beneficiaries of Ujjwala Yojana will get a subsidy of ₹200 on every 14.2 kg LPG gas cylinder per year.
The Centre has capped the refill limit to 12 times a year. That means the union cabinet has approved a subsidy of ₹200 per 14.2 kg cylinder for up to 12 refills per year as of 1 March 2023.
The total expenditure will be ₹6,100 crore for the financial year 2022-23 and ₹7,680 crore for 2023-24, it added.
Notably, all major oil marketing companies namely Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL) have already been providing this subsidy since May 22, 2022.
The central government said that there has been a sharp increase in international prices of LPG due to various geopolitical reasons and it is important to shield PMUY beneficiaries from high LPG prices.
“Targeted support to PMUY consumers encourages them to continue usage of LPG. It is important to ensure sustained LPG adoption and usage among PMUY consumers so that they can completely switch to cleaner cooking fuel,” it added.
It said the average LPG consumption of PMUY consumers has increased by 20% from 3.01 refills in 2019-20 to 3.68 in 2021-22.
Separately, the Centre this month increased the prices of non-subsidised 14.2 kg gas cylinders by ₹50. In the national capital Delhi, the price of a non-subsidised 14.2kg gas cylinder stands at ₹1,103. The price of the 19-kg commercial LPG cylinder also witnessed a steep hike of ₹350.50 to ₹2,119.50 per cylinder this month.
About Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY):
The central government announced the PMUY as a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households which were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes, etc.
PMUY was launched on 1 May 2016 in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh.
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