LPG price hike plays havoc with the pocket

RANCHI: The increase in prices of gas cylinders on the first day of the New Year has come as a rude shock for many. While the hike in prices of subsidized cylinders is marginal, non-subsidized cylinders will now cost substantially more and affect the common man's budget.
Ravi Bhatt, general secretary of the Jharkhand LPG Association, said while the subsidized rate of a 14.2 kg cylinder remained unchanged at Rs 441.50, the non-subsidized rate has been increased increased by Rs 231.50 from Rs 1114.50 to Rs 1346.Similarly, the subsidized rate of 5 kg cylinder increased from Rs 401 to Rs 482, while the non-subsidized rate has been hiked from Rs 513 to Rs 614. The cost of 19kg commercial cylinder has been increased from Rs 1887.50 to Rs 2271.50 and that of 47.5kg cylinder increased from Rs 4717.50 to Rs 5677.50.
While new prices have already been imposed in the city, some reports quoted Union petroleum minister Veerappa Moily as saying that there has not been any increase in prices. Bhatt, however, said: "We have received a mail from Indian Oil Corporation Ltd about the increase in prices on December 31, 2013 and we have already started implementing the new price."
Chief area manager of Indian Oil Corporation Uday Kumar confirmed the hike in prices. "The prices of domestic subsidized cylinder has not increased, but the price of non-subsidized domestic cylinder has increased by more than Rs 200, while that of commercial cylinders has increased by more than Rs.400."
Mayank Kumar, an employee with a private firm, said: "Regular increase in prices of gas cylinders is creating a big problem for as far as managing our budget is concerned. The prices were increased just last month. We have already consumed our nine subsidized cylinders and we are now buying cylinders on non-subsidized rate and paying extra Rs 200."
Bhatt said that the sale of cylinders dipped on the first day of implementation of the new price. He said: "Several customers refused to take delivery of cylinders when our boys reached their homes this morning. They said the price is far too high and they would take the cylinders later."
Meanwhile, the one-month extension for linking Aadhaar numbers for getting cylinders at a subsidized rate has come as a relief for many people. Under the Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG, people who do not link their UID numbers to the LPG distributor and bank account would not get the refund of subsidy from December 31, 2013. The deadline has now been extended to January 31,2014.
However, the directive of Supreme Court which said that Aadhaar should not be made mandatory to provide any service, led to the extension of the last date to January 31, 2014. After the announcement of DBTL was made, many people in five districts of the state, where the project was to be implemented connected their Aadhaar numbers to their banks and gas distributors.
In Ranchi, of the 2,37,372 consumers of gas cylinders, 42.17% have got their UID number linked to gas distributors while 22.4% got it linked with banks.