The
government will raise the cap on supply of subsidised cylinders to households
to nine from six, oil minister Veerappa Moily announced just before the Gujarat
polls, inviting the ire of the Election Commission, which has sought an
explanation.
The
government was under pressure from all political parties, including the
Congress to ease the hardship of cooking gas customers. Several Congress
politicians had complained that voters in their constituencies were angry with
the decision taken in September to limit the supply of subsidised gas cylinders
to six per household per year.
Moily
also said the government was trying to make the change "revenue
neutral" implying that the state oil firms may increase prices.
The
Election Commission took note of the announcement and issued a stern letter to
oil ministry and said if there was a move to increase the supply of subsidised
cylinders, it should be stopped as the model code of conduct was in force for
the elections in Gujarat that begin this week. Moily had earlier announced that
there was no need to wait for polling to be completed.
"The
decision will be taken up by the cabinet at the earliest; there is no necessity
to wait for elections to get over," he told reporters.
He
said two rounds of meetings on the issue had already been held with the finance
minister.
ET
was the first to report that Moily was keen to increase the cap on subsidised
cylinders.
The
minister has also stated in Parliament that the government had received several
representations against the limit of six cylinder, and was considering them.
Government
officials said increasing the number of subsidised cylinders would have fiscal
implications, but a small increase in the price of cooking gas would be enough
to neutralize the impact.
The
government is keen to provide direct cash subsidy to the needy instead of
selling cooking gas and kerosene at a loss.
This
will reduce subsidies and deter the use of cheap kerosene in adulterating
petrol and diesel.
The
oil ministry plans to transfer cooking gas subsidy amount directly to bank accounts
of consumers without aadhaar numbers starting from Andaman & Nicobar. It is
also preparing a draft cabinet note to provide cash subsidy on kerosene across
the country by April next year, government officials said.
According
to the oil ministry, the proposed scheme would save Rs 7,500 crore in kerosene
and Rs 7,200 crore on cooking gas annually. Government and state oil companies
pay Rs 36,365 crore subsidy on LPG and Rs 29,386 crore on kerosene annually.
Source:
Economic Times
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