The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) wants the Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas to obtain necessary Cabinet approvals for smooth roll out of LPG subsidy through the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme.
In a letter to Vivek Rae, Petroleum Secretary, the Principal Secretary in the PMO, Pulok Chatterji, said that as agreed in the meeting held in February, the Petroleum Ministry would need to move a note to the Cabinet and obtain whatever approvals are necessary for the roll out.
The letter recalled the April 5 decision of the National Committee on DBT to roll out the transfer of LPG subsidy through the mechanism in 20 districts with effect from May 15 and urged the Petroleum Ministry to expedite the steps.
Even though the numbers involved and the money to be transacted are much larger than in any other scheme under DBT so far, Chatterji expressed confidence that the Petroleum Ministry and the three oil marketing companies would be able to roll out the transfer of LPG subsidy through DBT successfully from May 15.
The letter, which was put out as an official communication from the PMO, said the roll out was to take place in other districts after a certain threshold is crossed in Aadhaar enrolment in each district.
The Ministers of Finance and Petroleum had assured the Prime Minister that all necessary steps would be taken to ensure that the roll out happens as planned, it said.
Chatterji, in his letter, said that as far as LPG subsidy was concerned the Petroleum Ministry was starting from the fortuitous position of having a more or less complete digitised database of consumers. Further, he said, the financial transactions would have to be managed by the three oil marketing companies (OMCs) without having to deal with intermediate agencies.
“This is a good base to begin from,” he added.
Pointing out the challenges, he said the main one was ensuring that the consumer database with OMCs and the bank accounts of consumers were seeded with Aadhaar numbers.
“As the districts which have been chosen are part of the original list of 43 districts included in Phase-I, Aadhaar enrolment in these districts is quite high. I learn that Aadhaar seeding in OMC databases has risen considerably in the last four months,” he said.
OMCs should make concerted efforts to ensure that seeding rates improve further in the remaining time that is there, the letter said, adding that the Petroleum Ministry would need to co-ordinate with the Department of Financial Services, Finance Ministry, and banks to ensure that seeding in customer bank accounts also improved.