The enrollment of beneficiaries under the ambitious modified Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG (DBTL) scheme has finally stopped at 128.7 million beneficiaries, oil ministry data showed.
This translates into annual subsidy savings to the tune of Rs 5,060 crore at current prices. About 21.3 million customers were eliminated as fake accounts, customers without bank accounts and those who voluntarily surrendered subsidy were deleted from the list.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday listed the success of the scheme as a major achievement by his government.
“We have ensured LPG subsidy is delivered directly to the bank accounts of more than 12 crore customers,” he said while speaking at a public rally in Mathura on how the government has eliminated middlemen and agents from the system.
Business Standard had reported last month the pace of enrollment under the scheme, touted as the world’s largest cash transfer programme, has slowed down and is likely to stop soon, weeding out 20-30 million mostly duplicate accounts.
The government had budgeted for a total petroleum subsidy outgo of Rs 30,000 crore in the Union Budget 2015-16, including Rs 22,000 crore for LPG. The estimate was recently increased to Rs 40,000 crore.
The government had already identified and eliminated around 10 million fake connections under a de-duplication drive over the past two years. The latest round of elimination through enrollments under modified DBTL has added to that list.
Under the current scheme, consumers who are not enrolled were given a three months grace period during which they received the cylinders at subsidised rate. After the grace period, they are to be given an additional period of three months ending June as parking period. During the parking period they will have to buy cylinders at the market rate. If the consumer joins the scheme within the parking period, the subsidy as per entitlement and consumption during parking period will be transferred to his bank account.
A petroleum ministry official said it may be too early to arrive at the exact quantum of subsidy savings for the government as the true picture would emerge only after June when the parking period for subsidy ends.
Consumers are currently entitled to twelve 14.2-kg cylinders in a year at subsidised rates. Any requirement above that has to be procured at market price. A subsidised 14.2-kg cylinder is currently available at Rs 417 per bottle in Delhi as against a market price of Rs 621 per cylinder. The government could thus end up saving around Rs 5,060 crore annually based on a per cylinder subsidy of Rs 198 at current crude oil prices.
The NDA government had started modified-DBTL, delinking it from Aadhar, in 54 districts in mid-November of 2014. Later the scheme was rolled-out across the country, or in 676 districts, on 1 January 2015 transferring cooking gas subsidy directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries. Since then, the enrollments have risen gradually.
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