SBU to keep subsidy flowing for BPCL customers

NEW DELHI: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) will create an SBU (strategic business unit) for its domestic LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) business to ensure its seven crore household customers continue to get government subsidy on cooking fuel after the company is privatised.
The SBU will allow the government to work around the issue of giving subsidy to a private company in the three years the new owner/s will have to decide on whether to retain the domestic LPG business, a top oil ministry official told TOI. The SBU will maintain separate accounts, with records of subsidy received and digitally transferred to user accounts, which will be audited to ensure no pilferage.
If the new owner/s retain the domestic LPG business, the government will continue to provide subsidy, if there is a subsidy, through the SBU without creating a situation where other private fuel retailers may also want in. But if the new owners do not want to carry on, as usual, all of BPCL’s domestic LPG consumers will be transferred to the other two public sector fuel retailers – IndianOil and Hindustan Petroleum.