Indane gas distributors blame IOC for delay

CHENNAI: Indane distributors in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday attributed the delay in distribution of LPG refill cylinders to customers to lack of supply from Indian Oil. The state unit of All-I
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CHENNAI: Indane distributors in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday attributed the delay in distribution of LPG refill cylinders to customers to lack of supply from Indian Oil.

The state unit of All-India Indane Distributors’ Association, while rejecting Food Minister E V Velu’s claim that the delay supply of Indane gas cylinders was due to their diversion, said the problem has been in existence for the past three months. “The delay is due to lack of supply from Indian Oil; not due to any diversion,” association president R S Jagadeesan told reporters here.

 Every year, state subsidy presents IOC with a loss of `30,000 crore, at the rate of `210 per cylinder. In order to minimise the loss or regulate  it, IOC controls its supply of LGP cylinders. It is only because of lack of supply that we are unable to meet the demand of the customers,” he claimed.

Earlier, a joint review meeting convened by Velu with Union Petroleum Secretary S Sundaresan maintained that the distributors were using a non-existent norm of “no booking for LPG refills within 21 days of the receipt of the previous cylinder”.

IOC executive director D S L Prasad, who is coordinator of oil marketing companies, said action would be taken against distributors who insist on such non-existent norms.

Responding to Prasad’s statement, Jagadeesan said, “We want IOC to come up with written policy guidelines on distribution. It will help in better regulation. And we also request them to come out in the open and tell the customers the real reason behind the delay.”

The association said there were 75 lakh Indane LPG customers in the state, and one-third of them were in Chennai. For customers in the city, the waiting period ranged from 10-20 days, while in the districts it varied from 25-30 days.

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