If you have exhausted your quota of remaining three subsidised cylinders before March 2013, get ready to pay over Rs 750 a cylinder.

On September 13, the Government had said that the number of subsidised cylinders available to each household in the remaining part of the current fiscal would be three. It had also said that the market rate of non-subsidised cylinders would be notified by the OMCs on a monthly basis.

Following the Government’s decision to cap the supply of subsidised domestic LPG to six annually for each household (Congress-led States will give nine), public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) late last evening announced the market rates for non-subsidised domestic cylinders and exempt categories/charitable institutions. The rates are effective from September 18 and will vary from city to city depending on local taxes.

A senior oil company executive told Business Line that the non-subsidised rates would be applicable for cylinders bought beyond the three remaining subsidised cylinders for the fiscal. Asked why charitable institutions were being made to pay a higher price, the official said that according to the Government orders such institutions/exempt categories had not been defined as beneficiaries of subsidised cylinders. But seeing the kind of work they do, the companies had decided to offer them cylinders at rates lower than commercial LPG, the official said. On concerns raised by the All-India LPG Distributors’ Federation that the OMCs and the Government would have to come up with an enforcement mechanism for smooth implementation of the decision, the official said a special software has been developed to help distributors do proper billing.

>richa.mishra@thehindu.co.in

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