Govt saved Rs 7,000 cr in LPG subsidy last fiscal due to DBTL
India saved Rs 7,000 crore of annual subsidy outgo on cooking gas last financial year (2015-16) thanks to the implementation of the Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG (DBTL) scheme.
The benefit accruing from the scheme was half as compared to savings of Rs 14,700 crore in the previous fiscal. “If DBTL was not there, the government would have had to spend Rs 15,000 crore more in 2014-15. The benefit stood at Rs 7,000 crore last financial year,” petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said here at an event on Energy Subsidies.
Oil ministry’s Joint Secretary Ashutosh Jindal, who was also present on the occasion, said the last financial year witnessed a minor weeding out of duplicate connections as compared to 40 million ghost connections eliminated in 2014-15.
The Oil Marketing Companies’ total LPG under-recoveries on LPG came down from Rs 36,500 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 16,000 crore in 2015-16. Pradhan said the 60% reduction in the subsidy was on account of the decline in crude oil prices and the implementation of DBTL.
The minister also said the oil ministry has received requests from African nations, SAARC countries and also Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries for replicating the model of the DBTL scheme.
