With chaos prevailing in and outside the offices of the LPG distributors across the State as consumers queued up to fulfil the KYC (know your customer) requirement, the Odisha LPG Distributors’ Association (OLPGDA) on Monday clarified that the procedure being followed by gas agencies is only to verify multiple or ghost connections.
“As per the Central Government instructions, the oil companies have been asked to collect data on LPG consumers and verify multiple connections,” said president of OLPGDA and vice-president of All-India HP Gas Dealers’ Association S B Mohapatra.
Consumers having single connection are not required to submit KYC form. Only those having multiple connections with same-name-same-address (SNSA) or different-name-and-same-address (DSNA) should go to their respective dealers to facilitate the verification process and regularise their connections.
Those consumers who have not used a single gas within 180 days (6 months) are also required to submit KYC failing which their connections will be blocked, he said. The objective of the KYC is to eliminate multiple connections of a single consumer and ghost consumers.
Capping the use of subsidised gas cylinders to six per household per year and the requirement of filling the KYC forms have triggered the rush. This has sparked off fear among consumers that their connections will be blocked if they do not submit the KYC form, Mohapatra said.
He further clarified that the oil companies have not set any deadline for submitting the KYC form. As it is widely circulated that October 31 is the last date for the KYC, Mohapatra said there is no truth in it. Stating that no deadline has been set for the verification, he appealed to the consumers not to panic and assist the LPG dealers to complete the process smoothly. Unnecessary crowd at the dealers point is also affecting the normal delivery of LPG to the consumers.