The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is confident of rolling out the direct benefit transfer for kerosene (DBTK) scheme in the 2016-17 fiscal.
“The issue with kerosene is that States will have to compile the consumer list. They have asked for some more time which we have agreed to. I am confident of rolling out a comprehensive DBT for kerosene model in the 2016-17 fiscal,” Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Petroleum and Natural Gas, said on Friday.
The Minister was speaking at an event to announce that another one crore households have given up the LPG subsidy under the government’s ‘GiveItUp’ scheme.
On January 1, the Centre had announced that it had identified 26 districts in eight States to roll out a pilot project of DBTK by April 1, 2016. By March, seven more districts and one more State were added to the list. To make them join the scheme, States will be given fiscal incentives to the tune of 75 per cent of subsidy savings in the first two years, 50 per cent of subsidy saved in the third year and 25 per cent of the subsidy saving in the fourth year.
The nine States identified were Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.
“The latest figures that we have show that 1.13 crore people have given up the LPG subsidy voluntarily across States in little over a year since the campaign was launched. Five States – Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu – have contributed to 50 per cent of those who have given up the LPG subsidy,” said Pradhan.
As a result of the voluntary foregoing of subsidy, 60 lakh below poverty line families have been provided LPG connections, the Minister said.
GiveItUp scheme Under the GiveItUp scheme, consumers foregoing subsidy cannot reclaim it till at least one year. “We will look at different models of providing them subsidy if they want it when LPG prices are higher,” Pradhan said.
The Minister said that currently India’s consumption of LPG is 21 million tonne of which 60 per cent is produced in the country.
“In the next few years, given the growth in the number of consumers, consumption is expected to grow to 30 million tonne. At that time about 50 per cent will be imported and the rest will be produced domestically,” said Pradhan.
India will continue to import LPG from Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia and other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, he added.
PM to launch new scheme Meanwhile, he said that on May 1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana wherein women members of 1.5 crore BPL families will be given LPG connections at discounted rates for the first year.