Direct cash transfer for LPG from June 1

New Delhi: The government will from June 1  roll out direct transfer of cash subsidy on cooking gas (LPG)  in 20 districts as it looks to cut its subsidy outgo by up to  Rs 10,000 crore annually by eliminating diversions.

Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said 76 lakh consumers in  20 districts like Mysore, North Goa, Pondicherry, Mandi Hyderabad,  Pathana mthitta and Wayanad will get Rs 435 in their back accounts every time  they book an LPG refill.

These consumers then will have to buy cooking gas at  market price. Announcing the launch, Moily said the government intends  to extend the scheme to rest of the country but refused to  give timelines for the same.

“We are ready to launch the direct benefit transfer scheme for LPG all over the country but we want to see the  results of the roll-out in these 20 districts.” Moily said the 20 districts selected have high Aadhaar or  unique identification number penetration.

While as many as 89 per cent of the LPG consuming  population in these districts have Aadhaar number, the  government will give a three-month grace period to them to  procure the UID number and seed it with their bank accounts  where cash subsidy has to be transferred.

After three months, that is from September 1, only  consumers having Aadhaar and banks accounts linked to them  will get cash subsidy and the rest will have to buy LPG at  market price, he said.

The government anticipates a saving of Rs 8,000 to 10,000  crore in LPG subsidy annually after the scheme is rolled out  all over the country.

The massive KYC exercise to weed out duplicate and  fictitious consumers have resulted in blocking of 63 lakh connections that alone will save about Rs 2,000 crore in  subsidy. The nation has some 14 crore LPG consumers of which 2.5 crore were suspected to be duplicate or consumers holding more than one connection at the same address