The beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme are not opting for enough refills of cooking gas cylinders according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

This puts a serious question mark on the viability of the scheme, and in fact, there has been a decline in the annual average LPG cylinder refills by PMUY beneficiaries.

“Encouraging the sustained usage of LPG remains a big challenge as the annual average refill consumption of 1.93 crore PMUY consumers (who have completed more than one year as on March 31, 2018) was only 3.66 refills as worked out by audit. Similar analysis for 3.18 crore PMUY beneficiaries as on December 31, 2018, revealed that refill consumption declined to 3.21 refills per annum,” the CAG’s Performance Audit Report of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana said.

Also read: Govt manages to hit target on deposit-free LPG connections, but stumped by poor refill orders

This is contrary to the aims of the government to boost the use of cooking gas and minimise the proliferation of biomass, like firewood, for cooking.

Impact on OMCs

The lower consumption also has a financial impact for the oil marketing companies (OMCs). “Low consumption of refills (up to three) by 0.92 crore loanee consumers had hindered recovery of outstanding loan of ₹1,234.71 crore,” the CAG said.

Under the PMUY programme, the public sector OMCs offered deposit free LPG connections to below poverty line households. The upfront cost of the connection was recovered by the OMC from the subsidy accrued on subsequent refills by the consumers.

Quoting from assessment by the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) and Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC)-Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL) , the CAG said that the high refill cost was a barrier to LPG usage. “As the target of releasing PMUY connections has been broadly achieved, PMUY beneficiaries in nil or low consumption category need to be encouraged for sustained usage,” the CAG recommended.

Risk of diversion

The CAG also said that a risk of diversion of domestic cylinders for commercial use was noticed as 1.98 lakh PMUY beneficiaries had an average annual consumption of more than 12 cylinders which seems improbable in view of their BPL status.

“Similarly, 13.96 lakh beneficiaries consumed 3 to 41 refills in a month. Further, IOCL and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) in 3.44 lakh instances issued 2 to 20 refills in a day to a PMUY beneficiary having single bottle connection,” the CAG said.

The CAG recommended that cases of high consumption of refills should be regularly reviewed to curb diversion.

Pointing out laxity in identification of beneficiaries, the CAG noticed that 9,897 LPG connections were issued against Abridged Household List Temporary Identification Numbers (AHLTINs – a unique number of 29 digits assigned to each member of BPL household under SECC) where names of all family members and the beneficiary were blank in SECC-2011 list.

Similarly, 4.10 lakh connections were issued against AHLTINs where entire detail of family, except that of one member, was blank in SECC-2011 list.

The CAG also said that there was a delay of more than 10 days (ranging up to 664 days) in delivery of 36.62 lakh LPG refills against the stipulated delivery period of seven days. “The poor performance of LPG distributors in adherence to Targeted Delivery Time (TDT) norms of Marketing Disciplinary Guidelines (MDG) was not monitored by the OMCs,” the CAG noted.

Drawing attention towards excess parking of funds under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) pool. The CAG said that these funds were contributed on the directives of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas “without any realistic assessment”.

As such, an amount of ₹261.85 crore was lying idle which could have been utilized elsewhere in other deserving projects, the CAG said.

Pointers: CAG recommendations for PMUY scheme

1. Third-Party Audit may be got carried out to assess the implementation of scheme

2. Aadhaar numbers of all adult family members of existing as well as new beneficiaries should be entered in the system to make de-duplication effective

3. Appropriate input controls, data validations and mandatory fields should be deployed in distributors’ software to restrict issuance of LPG connections to ineligible beneficiaries

4. E-KYC needs to be initiated to ensure correct information and authenticate genuineness of the PMUY beneficiaries

5. LPG connections issued to minor beneficiaries may be transferred in the name of adult family member if the family is otherwise found eligible under PMUY

6. Safety campaigns need to be organised in order to ensure safe usage of LPG by PMUY beneficiaries

7. The option of subsidising the cost of mandatory inspection may be explored to avoid risk hazards in the absence of regular inspections

8. PMUY beneficiaries in nil or low consumption category need to be encouraged for sustained usage

9. Cases of high consumption of refills should be regularly reviewed to curb diversion

10. Entire LPG databases as well as physical records need to be scrutinised to identify and restrict release of connections to ineligible beneficiaries

Related Topics