The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has allocated up to 10% additional commercial LPG to the states and Union Territories, with the condition of fast-tracking approvals for expanding the city gas distribution (CGD) network and addressing other challenges. The additional 10% allocation of LPG includes 1% extra allocation for setting up state and district-level committees for approval of CGD applications and resolving grievances, 2 % for granting deemed permissions, 3 % for implementing a “dig and restore” policy, and 4 % for reducing annual lease charges.
The Centre has urged states to immediately clear all pending applications for laying CGD pipelines. It has also asked local authorities to waive road restoration and permission charges, and appoint nodal officers to speed up implementation.
“Now the onus is on the state and union territories to take this reform forward, expedite the approvals and ensure the connections to domestic, commercial and industrial PNG consumers in their areas,” Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary (Marketing & Oil Refinery), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said on Wednesday. She admitted that the LPG shortage situation is still worrying.
The ministry said that the domestic LPG production has been increased to 40% as on March 18.
So far, 15 states and UTs have issued commercial LPG allocation orders, while 12 have made additional kerosene allocations. Authorities have also been asked to act against hoarding and black marketing under existing control orders. States/UTs like Bihar, Chhattisgarh Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and others, have issued orders for allocation of non-domestic LPG, and commercial LPG supply is being made available across the country.
The government said over 1.2 lakh new piped gas connections have been added in the past two weeks, while PNG and CNG supplies continue without cuts.
While commenting on the availability of the aviation fuel, she said: “We have sufficient stocks of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and no price increase has been done by the oil marketing companies. Till now, there has been no increase in the prices of petrol and diesel.”
However, India is refraining from any additional diesel or petrol exports to neighbouring countries to meet the domestic demand.