NUMBER
OF LPG CONSUMERS CROSSES 7 CRORE MARK
Shri Ram Naik, Minister
of Petroleum & Natural Gas informed the Rajya Sabha today
that India now has 7 crore LPG consumers as on 31.3.2003. India
now has one of the largest numbers of domestic LPG consumers in
the world. The number has more than doubled from 3.37 crore as
on 31.3.1998. There were 3.81 crore LPG consumers as on 31.3.1999;
4.73 crore as on 31.3.2000; 5.43 crore as on 31.3.2001 and 6.35
crore as on 31.3.2002. With this, 37.5% of the country’s population
has been covered with the supply of LPG for domestic use.
Replying to supplementary
queries Shri Ram Naik informed the House that the number of LPG
Distributors have also increased to 7,887. There were 5,538 LPG
Distributors as on 31.3.1998. Towards expanding the use of LPG
in the rural and semi urban areas, the Minister informed that
efforts are being made to set up one LPG Distributorship at each
Block Headquarter in the country. The 5 Kg. LPG cylinder which
is smaller than the conventional 14.2 kg. Cylinder was introduced
on 16th August 2002 to cover rural and hill areas.
While replying to
the main question on pilferage of gas from LPG cylinders, the
Minister informed the House that several measures have been taken
to check the incidents of pilferage and other malpractices in
the supply of LPG for domestic use. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Regulation
of Supply and Distribution) Order, 2000 under the Essential Commodities
Act, 1955 was promulgated. As per this Order, pilfering product
from cylinder/supply of partially used cylinder to LPG consumer
by the distributors of Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs)
as well as Parallel Marketeers has been prohibited. State Governments
are also empowered to take action against the erring distributors
under the provisions of the above Order. Marketing Discipline
Guidelines (MDG) for LPG distributors of OMCs have been laid down
by the Government in April, 2001. According to these guidelines,
in case of establishment of any complaint of pilferage/supply
of partially used cylinders to customer, a fine of Rs. 20,000
plus the price of LPG pilfered/supplied short at commercial rate
for 1st offence, Rs. 50,000 plus the price of LPG pilfered/supplied
short at commercial rate for 2nd offence and termination
of distributorship for the 3rd offence by the distributor
is imposed
Shri Naik further
said that the LPG distributors of OMCs are under strict instructions
to supply the cylinders of right quantity and quality to their
customers. The officials of OMCs carry out random checks at distributor’s
godown, delivery point as well as enroute to ensure that no pilferage
takes place. On the establishment of any complaint of pilferage
or supply of partially used cylinder to customer, action against
the erring distributor is taken in terms of MDG and/or Distributorship
Agreement. OMCs have reported 41 established cases of pilferage/supply
of partially used cylinders to customers against their distributors
during the year 2002-2003 as against 37 cases during the year
2001-2002.
