Surrender multiple LPG connections before it is late

14 July, 2012

This article is about the Plan of Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) to identify people who are using multiple cylinders. The plan if works will reduce the waitlist for Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connection and their refilling.

ACCORDING TO OMC, a consumer with multiple connections in the name of various family members will have to surrender the extra connection or otherwise they have to forgo their refill. Now with a recently launcher portal for LPG connections, it has been made easier for OMCs to find the consumers with multiple cylinders with more than one company. The estimated multiple LPG connections are 1.5 crore out of 14 crore connections in the country, according to an Indian oil official.

Though the OMCs in the past have said about the plans of checking the multiple connections but that never took off. But now with the rising subsidy bill, the government has forced the OMCs to find out the multiple LPG connections.

To begin with Bharat petroleum company (BPCL) handed over the list of its consumer data to National Informatics Centre (NIC) pertaining to states of Delhi, Punjab, and Puducherry for finding out people with multiple connections. The Indian Oil (IOC) has also started the process of identifying the same with multiple connections in Noida and plans to check in the cities of Chandigarh, Aurangabad, and Siluguri.

The exercise will be a huge task and will also involve the distributors. The consumers with multiple connections will have to surrender the extra connections. The consumers will receive a letter from OMCs asking for details of connections and distributors and officials will be physically checking the details provided by the consumers.