India now has one of the most robust LPG supply infrastructure globally. Before April 2014, nearly 45 per cent of Indian households didn’t have access to clean cooking fuels and were constrained to depend on traditional fuels like cow dung, biomass, firewood etc. Responding to a question, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha, said India imports more than 60 per cent of its domestic LPG consumption.
Prices of LPG in the country are linked to its price in the international market. The Central government continues to modulate the effective price to consumer for domestic LPG. During the period 2020-21 to 2022-23, the average Saudi CP (international benchmark for LPG pricing) went up from $415 per MT to $712 per MT.
However, the increase in the international prices was not fully passed on to customers. The State government has reduced the effective price of domestic LPG by Rs. 200 per 14.
2 kg LPG cylinder with effect from August 30, 2023. Under PAHAL Scheme, the domestic LPG cylinders are sold at non-subsidised price and the applicable subsidy to the consumers is transferred directly into their bank accounts. Apart from the direct subsidy to bank accounts to consumers, the OMCs have also been compensated Rs 22,000 crore in FY 2022-23 by the Central government to cover the under-recoveries suffered by them in not passing on the high international prices to the domestic LPG consumers.
With effect from May 21 2022, the Centr.