Ahead of the Diwali festival, the Congress-NCP DemocraticFront (DF) government on Wednesday announced the increase in the annual cap onthe number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders from six to nine per familybelow poverty line (BPL) or with an income less than Rs 1 lakh a year. Forquite some time there was discussion on this issue, but the decision came lateon Wednesday night.
The decision, taken at the State Cabinet’s weekly meeting,was in line with the directive given in the third week of September by Congresspresident and UPA chairpersons Sonia Gandhi to the chief ministers of variousCongress-led states in the country. It would be implemented retrospectivelyfrom the current financial year.
The annual financial burden arising out of the subsidisedcooking gas cylinder cap hike decision would be Rs 1,100 crore. The move wouldbenefit 1.47 crore BPL families in the state.
Following the Union government’s September 13, 2012 decisionto cap the supply of subsidised cooking gas (LPG) to six cylinders perhousehold per year, all the cooking gasconsumers would get a subsidy of 370 subsidy per cylinder for the six cylindersfor which they are entitled.
However, in the case of BPL households or families with anannual income less than Rs 1 lakh, the state government would provide subsidyfor purchase of three cylinders per year in addition to the six subsidisedcylinders they are entitled to in a year as per the Centre’s decision.
Though it had announced that it was committed to increasingthe annual cap on the number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders from six tonine for each household in a year, the DF government had been dilly-dallying ondeciding on the issue, following differences between the ruling Congress andits alliance partner NCP.
On its part, the ruling NCP had made an issue and demandedthat the cap increase should be extended to all cooking gas consumers in thestate “ instead of restricting the decision to merely BPL families.
In the run-up to Wednesday’s State Cabinet meeting where theDF government took a formal decision on the cooking gas cylinder cap increase,Finance Minister Jayant Patil of the NCP had gone on record saying that it wasthe prerogative of the chief minister to take a final decision on the issue. He,however, had insisted that the benefit be extended to all families and notrestrict it to just BPL households.
However, going by Wednesday’s decision, it is crystal clearthat the chief minister has prevailed upon the NCP to limit the subsidisedcooking gas cylinder cap increase to BPL households or those families withannual income less than Rs 1 lakh.
