The 9.34 crore beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) scheme consumed around 31.47 crore refills of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), Parliament was informed on Thursday.
As per the data provided by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli in a written reply in Lok Sabha, PMUY beneficiaries consumed 31,47,52,219 LPG refills in FY22. Besides, 5,41,22,389 PMUY beneficiaries took four or less refills in the last financial year.
The per capita consumption of PMUY beneficiaries also increased from 3.01 in FY20 to 3.66 in FY22, he said.
“Further, the government has taken several steps to encourage consumption of LPG by PMUY beneficiaries, which include announcement of subsidy of ₹200 per 14.2 kg refill up to 12 refills per year for PMUY beneficiaries for FY23, option of 5 kg Double Bottle Connection (DBC), swap option from 14.2 kg to 5 Kg, up to 3 free refills to PMUY beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package from April to December 2020 etc,” the Minister noted.
In a separate query in Lok Sabha, the MoS said PMUY was launched in 2016 to provide deposit free LPG connections to women members of poor households and the target to provide eight crore LPG connections under the Scheme was achieved in 2019.
Further, under Phase-II of PMUY (Ujjwala 2.0), in addition to deposit free LPG connections, all PMUY beneficiaries are provided free first refill and stove as well.
As on July 1, 2022, the oil marketing companies (OMCs) have released 1.35 crore LPG connections under Ujjwala 2.0. OMCs have delivered 116.9 crore refills (other than installation refill) to PMUY beneficiaries till June 30 this year.