More Woes Added to Consumers’ Worries, LPG Cylinder Prices Hiked Again

Guwahati: Shortage of essentials is a daunting prospect for the householder, more so if it is the domestic fuel that is going scarce. A brewing LPG cylinder crisis in Assam could foul up the coming festive season if the State government fails to take timely action. A strike by the North East Packed LPG Transporters Association (NEPLTA) has been going on for a week now — the transporters are up in arms over new tendering rules put in place by the Indian Oil Corporation.

If this was not enough, people are on the verge of more suffering from price hike of essential commodities as the government on Sunday decided to increase prices of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders with effect from October 1.

Reportedly, non-subsidized LPG cylinders have been hiked by Rs 59 while the subsidized cylinders have been hiked by Rs 2.89 per cylinder. As per the new rates, the price of subsidized cylinders will be now Rs 502.5 per unit from October 1, 2018.

According to a press statement published by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the change in international prices and fluctuating foreign exchange rates the prices have been hiked this month.

The actual impact on subsidized domestic LPG customers is only Rs 2.89 per cylinder, which is mainly due to GST on the above, IOC added.

The IOC is reportedly mulling a move to make 5-kg cylinders available to distributing agencies at the gates of LPG bottling plants, but that would be hardly enough to meet the huge pending demand. After all, the NEPLTA operates several thousand trucks to transport cylinders from IOC’s six bottling plants to distributing agencies all over the State.

The government cannot shrug off the responsibility of ensuring that supply and distribution of domestic fuel remains smooth, more so in an oil producer State like Assam. Meanwhile, the government is learnt to be planning a pilot project to make Guwahati kerosene-free in the interest of clean air, though it is unclear how poor families and migrant workers in the city will manage to access affordable fuel. Even if sufficient coal is available for lakhs of consumers (a very big if), the air pollution can be imagined.

There has to be a sound policy to guarantee energy security in households too, considering their vulnerability to limited cooking fuel options and a distorted monopoly market subject to shocks.