No consumer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders will be denied LPG subsidy for want of Aadhaar number, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here on Saturday.

Briefing media on the modified direct benefit transfer scheme in LPG (DBTL) —approved by CCEA on Saturday, Jaitley said all LPG consumers who join the DBTL scheme in future can receive LPG cash subsidy in two options.

As a primary option, they could get subsidy by linking Aadhaar number to the LPG and bank database.

As a second option, they could directly get the subsidy into the bank account without necessarily linking it with the use of Aadhaar.

Simply put, even if a LPG consumer does not have an aadhaar card, but has a bank account, they could avail this LPG subsidy.

The Modi-government today decided to re-launch the modified direct benefit transfer scheme in LPG in 54 districts from mid-November It would be rolled out in rest of the country from January 1, 2015.

Jaitley also said all LPG consumers who had already joined the scheme solely based on Aadhaar number will start getting subsidy in the Aadhar linked bank accounts after scheme is launched.

LPG consumers will get a grace period of 3 months during which consumers who have joined the scheme will get subsidy in bank account and others will continue to get cylinders at subsidised price.

Also, LPG consumers who do not join the scheme after the 3 month grace period, will be eligible for an additional subsidy parking period of 3 months.

Jaitley also said that LPG consumers who will now join the modified scheme in future will get a permanent advance towards the purchase of the first market priced cylinder equal to the fixed subsidy per cylinder.

A revamped grievance system to attend to consumer grievances will be put in place, he added.

Srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in

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