NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday raised the LPG subsidy for ‘Ujjwala’ scheme beneficiaries by Rs 100 to Rs 300, reducing the cost of each refill to Rs 603 for poor households against Rs 903 for general category of consumers.
The move is likely to blunt some of the Opposition’s criticism over inflation and rob much of the Congress’ thunder over the party’s government in Rajasthan offering cylinders at Rs 500.
This is the second major financial outreach towards economically weaker sections in a little over a month and comes ahead of elections in politically important states.
The Centre had on August 29 slashed the price of LPG refills across the board by Rs 200. The reduction doubled the relief to Rs 400 for 9.6 crore poor households which were given free connections under the Ujjwala scheme as they were already getting a subsidy of Rs 200 under the Covid relief package announced in May. Ujjwala is one of prime minister Narendra Modi’s flagship social welfare programmes.
Simultaneously, the government had also approved 75 lakh additional connections for women under Ujjwala, aiming to expand the footprint to more than 10.3 crore.
"During the past nine years, a lot of development work has been done for the welfare of women and the poor. Last month, on the eve of Rakshabandhan, when the prices of domestic were reduced by Rs 200, it reached about Rs 900. However, for the Ujjwala beneficiaries, it was Rs 700," I&B minister Anurag Thakur said announcing the decision.
The Ujjwala consumers get the subsidy directly into their accounts, making it the world’s largest direct benefit transfer programme.
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