JOIN USFlat owners with piped liquified petroleum gas (LPG) in the City are a harried lot.
Their monthly gas bills have gone up, and they are being asked to furnish several documents by their apartment associations to prove that they are entitled to subsidised LPG connection.
In a circular dated October 12, 2012, the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas told oil companies that the entitlement on the number of subsidised cylinders would be based on the number of flats actually occupied at the beginning of the capping year. This followed the Centre limiting the number of subsidised LPG cylinders to six per connection per year.
Conditions imposed were extensive. The entitlement to the subsidised LPG connection will come only after the housing society (apartment or residents association) submits the list of occupants. Besides, the apartment owner/association has to ensure that each flat owner declares that he or she is eligible for LPG connection, and that he or she doesn’t have multiple connections. Importantly, the flat owner has to comply with the other norms of the Know Your Customer (KYC) forms issued by the oil companies. The circular also asks the apartment associations to submit a declaration in each case of change of occupant.
The Petroleum Ministry has made it clear that till the apartment association and its members comply with the KYC norms, they are not entitled to subsidised cylinders.
However, they will continue to get cylinders at the non-subsidised rates.
KYC norms taxing
However, the implementation of the KYC norms has not gone down well with the flat owners in the City.
Many complain that the procedure is very time consuming and a lot of genuine customers are suffering. Sebastian K Deva, manager of the N R Royal Maner Apartment in Jakkur, said he has been making rounds to the gas distributor’s office and Indian Oil Company office to resolve the matter. “Many flat owners have given the declarations, which have been submitted to the distributors. However, there has been delay in the processing. We are now shelling out more than Rs 1,200 per a 14.2 kg cylinder at commercial rates as the distributor has denied LPG supply at subsidised rates (around Rs 420 per 14.2 kg cylinder) till the KYC norms are complied with,” he added.
A member of the Bangalore chapter of Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India said there were an estimated 6,000 apartments in the city and at least 40 per cent of them have piped LPG supply facility.
Prasanna Murthy, a flat owner at the Skyline apartment near Vijayanagar, said his monthly LPG bill has gone up by Rs 300 to Rs 500 with commercial supply of LPG on.
“Earlier, my monthly bill used to be around Rs 300 per month. I welcome the move by the Union government to weed out multiple connections. But the question is how long genuine customers have to suffer in the name of complying with KYC norms,” he said.
Samir K, a member of an apartment at Koramangala, said the oil companies should take steps to resume connections to those flat owners who have produced valid document and meet KYC norms.
Confronted with these issues, a staff at the Rashmi gas agency said they do receive complaints by apartment associations on long procedures. “We are bound by the rules of the government and there is a need to cross check the documents to ensure there are no multiple connections. And if there are 100 flat owners in one apartment, definitely it is bound to take time,” he said.
Sathyan N, secretary, All India LPG Distributors Federation (Karnataka Circle), said besides complying with KYC norms, the apartment association should give details of average consumption of LPG in the respective apartment over the last three years.
“These norms are fixed by the government and the distributors are only implementing it. We don’t have data, as of now, on how any apartments have complied with the KYC norms so far,” he said.
An official at the State Co-Ordinator Office of Indian Oil Company said once each flat owner in the apartment complies with KYC norms, he or she is eligible for six subsidised cylinder(14.2 kg) per year. “The exercise, once completed, will only benefit genuine customers as it weeds out multiple connections,” he said.