More than a million customers have given up their subsidised cooking gas (LPG) subsidy in the last three months in response to the government’s GiveItUp campaign. The campaign was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 27.
Data sourced from the GiveItUp portal, which is updated daily, show that 10.16 lakh customers have given up LPG subsidy across the country as of July 10. This has resulted in a saving of ₹476 crore in subsidy for the oil companies and the government.
The number of those who have opted out of the subsidy may appear minuscule compared with the 15.3 crore existing LPG connections but it is rising fast.
“The GiveItUp campaign is gathering momentum. A lot of people are coming forward and it is very encouraging. In the last 2-3 days alone IOC has seen more than 25,000 consumers giving up subsidy across the country on a daily basis,” says Indrajit Bose, Executive Director and Head of Branding and Corporate Communications, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The government has been airing TV commercials that encourage people to opt out of LPG subsidy.
Uttar Pradesh leads the pack with over 2 lakh consumers giving up their subsidy followed by Maharashtra (1.55 lakh) and Delhi (1.14 lakh). Incidentally, UP and Maharashtra rank first and second in the number of LPG connections in the country. In contrast, in Kerala, which is a developed State with high social development indices, just 15,030 consumers have opted out of subsidised connections.
Karnataka leads the pack in the south with over 78,307 consumers giving up subsidy, followed by Tamil Nadu (67,096), Andhra Pradesh (31,711) and Telangana (22,645).
As many as 4.46 lakh IOC customers have given up subsidy till now while it is 2.82 lakh each in the case of Bharat Petroleum and 2.86 lakh for Hindustan Petroleum.
The GiveItUp portal also gives out the names of those who have given up their subsidy. It also maps the name of each person who has opted out with the name of a BPL beneficiary who has got the subsidised connection. The oil companies together spent ₹36,580 crore as subsidy on LPG in 2014-15.