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The Government has transferred ₹ 1,260 crore to 7.63 crore LPG consumers as part of Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG scheme, also known as PAHAL, launched nationwide on January 1.
Till date, over half of the country’s 15.24 LPG consumers have joined PAHAL which has now become the largest cash transfer programme in the world. With 7.63 crore consumers, the scheme is far ahead of the cash transfer scheme in China which covers 2.2 crore households and Brazil which covers 1.2 crore households.
Over 40 per cent consumers from Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Meghalaya have joined the scheme last month. These states have shown the maximum growth, the Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas said in a statement. Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh have shown the second highest growth rate at 35 per cent.
Under the scheme, subsidy on LPG cylinders is to be transferred every day directly into the bank accounts of the consumers, normally within 48 hours of delivery of cylinder. At present, a fixed permanent advance is also given to every consumer.
The scheme has been launched in all 676 districts of the country. Out of 15.24 crore LPG consumers as on January 5, 7.41 crore have become cash transfer compliant of which 5.23 crore are Aadhar based.
However, 1.83 crore consumers have seeded their Aadhar number with LPG distributors but their Aadhar numbers are not reflected in their bank accounts which needs to be plugged by the banks at the earliest.
The Government aims to cover 75 per cent of the total 15.24 crore consumers by end of February 2015.
Till now, 21,927 complaints have been received and 16,067 have been disposed off. Thus the total number of complaints is 0.08 per cent of the total transactions.
The scheme will primarily save subsidy by reducing the incentive to divert subsidised cylinders to commercial use. It will also provide an easy exit route for customers who do not want to avail subsidy on domestic gas cylinders, an official statement added.
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