MP government saves crores as 15% LPG consumers yet to link bank accounts

With nearly 15% domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumers in the state yet to link their bank accounts under direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme, the Union government has saved crores of rupees in subsidy from Madhya Pradesh alone.

Moreover, with the deadline to link the bank accounts expiring on April 1, about 22.50 lakh LPG consumers in the state are not getting the subsidy amount of Rs 215 per cylinder, the officials said.

Assuming an average consumption rate of one cylinder per month, the government has already saved more than Rs 50 crore in subsidy amount, they added.

“At present, about 15% out of 1.5 crore connections in Madhya Pradesh are not linked with the bank accounts and so are not getting the subsidy benefit,” district nodal officer for DBT scheme, Kapil Rai, said.

“These consumers are now paying full amount until their accounts are linked,” he said.

The Union petroleum ministry has made the process to link the bank accounts more stringent and now it takes 10-15 days as against 3 to 4 days before March 31.

Ever since the government announced its intentions to strictly implement the DBT scheme in November 2014, LPG dealers had to deal with huge rush of consumers who had not linked the connection with the earlier Aadhar-based director transfer scheme of the erstwhile UPA government.

Direct benefit transfer scheme, also known as PAHAL, is an initiative to replace the subsidised goods with electronic transfers of subsidy amounts to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts.

Under this scheme, households are required to place an order of LPG cylinder from their LPG distributor, pay the full (unsubsidised) market price for the cylinder in cash on delivery and then receive a payment equivalent to the current subsidy amount via electronic transfer.

MP’s LPG statistics

1.50 crore registered LPG connections

22.50 lakh consumers have not linked their bank accounts under DBT

Rs 687 is the price of a non-subsidised LPG cylinder

Rs 215 is the subsidy transfer to bank (without VAT)