Cooking gas prices may see monthly revision to contain subsidy

NEW DELHI : Consumers of subsidised cooking gas may have to pay more for buying domestic LPG cylinders as the government is exploring the option to allow state-run oil companies to raise its price every month to reduce the oil subsidy burden that has almost doubled this month.

Sources said that though quantum of increase in price of subsidised cooking gas has not been worked out, it could be in the range of ₹4-5 per cylinder per month. This is similar to the practice adopted by state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) in 2016-2017 of regularly increasing the price of a LPG cylinder by ₹2 initially and ₹4 later.

The practice was phased out in October 2017 over stiff opposition to the move and the understanding that it worked contrary to Ujjwala scheme of providing free cooking gas connections to the poor.