From Jan, LPG subsidy will go to bank account

Come 2015 and the subsidy component towards LPG refill will be credited directly to the consumers’ bank accounts.

State-owned oil marketing companies — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation — will implement the modified Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme across Karnataka from January 1, 2015.

LPG distributors have already started alerting their consumers through SMSes to link the LPG consumer number with either their ordinary bank account or Aadhaar-based bank account.

The scheme has been launched in Mysuru and Tumakuru districts on an experimental basis.

The NDA government modified the earlier Aadhaar-based DBT scheme following a Supreme Court order not to make it mandatory for people to link subsidy schemes to Aadhaar. Under the modified DBT, consumers have been given the option to link the ordinary bank account or Aadhaar-based bank account.

The subsidy amount will be directly credited to any of these accounts, while charging the market price of LPG refill from the consumers. The market price normally hovers around Rs 750 per cylinder, while the consumers are charged Rs 425.

Consumers who do not have a bank account will have to open one and get it linked with their LPG consumer number by approaching the local distributor.

Oil companies have already instructed distributors to link the consumers’ bank account on the spot. Linking can also be done at the respective banks by filling in form 4, IOC Deputy General Manager (LPG) Dilip Rai said.

Meanwhile, consumers will be given three months beginning January 1 for linking the bank accounts. The existing system of supplying the refill at subsidised rate at the consumers’ doorsteps will continue during the grace period for those who have not opted for the scheme.

Rai said after the expiry of the grace period (April 1, 2015), the subsidy amount will be deposited in a separate account for three months for consumers who have not come under the scheme.

The money will be transferred to the consumers’ bank accounts as and when they opt for the scheme. After three months (July 1, 2015), those who fail to come under the scheme will lose the subsidy amount.

An average of 25 per cent of LPG consumers in the State have so far come under the scheme. In Bengaluru, about 35 per cent of the 20 lakh consumers have got their Aadhaar-based bank account linked to their LPG consumer numbers.

Oil companies have set a target of bringing at least 60 per cent of their consumers under the modified DBT by the end of the month, Rai said.