Panel to consider allowing private companies to sell subsidised LPG

The government has set up an expert panel to consider allowing private firms to sell subsidised cooking gas — a long-standing demand for companies like Reliance IndustriesNSE 0.59 % because state firms dominate the market by luring customers with a lot of subsidies.

Reliance Industries, which runs the world’s biggest refinery at Jamnagar, is a big producer of LPG and has been lobbying the government for years to permit private players to distribute subsidised cylinders.