The Government has provided a subsidy of Rs 24.38 a litre on PDS kerosene and Rs 320.38 per cylinder on domestic LPG as on March 1.
This information was given by the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
He also said that the total subsidy on PDS kerosene and domestic LPG during 2009-10 and April-December 2010 is Rs 34,391 crore and Rs 29,525 crore, respectively. The Minister further said that consumers get PDS kerosene and LPG cylinders at a subsidised price.
The subsidy is transferred to the public sector oil marketing companies – Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).
In order to avoid the leakages in the system, the Government is working out modalities for cash transfer of subsidies using the AADHAR platform operated by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), he added.
Black-marketing
He said that the possibility of black-marketing/diversion of subsidised domestic LPG cylinders and PDS kerosene by some unscrupulous elements cannot be ruled out due to the wide gap between the retail price of LPG for domestic use and the market price for commercial LPG and also PDS kerosene and petrol/diesel as well as for non-PDS usage, he added.
Vehicle tracking
In addition, the State Governments have been requested to install Global Positioning System (GPS) based Vehicle Tracking System (VTS) on tankers transporting PDS kerosene.
The OMCs are also devising a public portal where information on PDS kerosene such as dispatch time, quantity, and vehicle details would be made available to the general public.