Union Budget 2016: 5 crore LPG connections for BPL families

The government will dole out five crore LPG connections on a concessional rate to below poverty line (BPL) families till 2018-19, after Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday announced in the Union Budget that an ambitious mission to provide these connections in the name of women members of poor households will be undertaken in the forthcoming fiscal.

In addition to this, to encourage gas production, especially from deep-water, ultra deep-water and high pressure-high temperature areas, Mr Jaitley announced that as part of the government’s focus on self-sufficiency, it is considering to incentivise gas production from such areas as these are currently not exploited on account of higher cost and greater risks.

“We plan to embark upon on a massive mission to provide LPG connection in the name of women members of poor households. I have set aside a sum of Rs 2,000 crore in this year’s budget to meet the initial cost of providing these LPG connections,” the finance minister said in his budget speech.

Later in a press conference, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the government will provide a concession of Rs 1,600 to over five crore BPL families to get cooking gas connections in next three years. He also informed that average price of single cylinder LPG connection across all the states is Rs 3,400.

Mr Pradhan said the government has been providing LPG connections to the BPL families on concessional rates from the fund collected through CSR initiatives.

Elaborating further, Mr Jaitley said in his speech that the government would be requiring Rs 2,400 crore to provide cooking gas at concessional rate to 1.5 crore BPL families in 2016-17.

He said the government will provide these connection to 1.5 crore BPL households in 2017-18 and to two crore poor families in 2018-19.

Speaking on enhancing gas production in the country, the Finance Minister said in his speech, “a proposal is under consideration for new discoveries and areas which are yet to commence production, first, to provide calibrated marketing freedom, and second, to do so at a pre-determined ceiling price to be discovered on the principle of landed price of alternative fuels.”