TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Nearly 86 per cent of over 7.25 crore persons who got free cooking gas connections bought a second LPG refill, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday as he sought to counter the narrative that beneficiaries of the scheme not returning after exhausting their first bottle.
Highlighting achievements of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), he said average per capita consumption of PMUY beneficiaries is around 4.87 cylinders in a year. “Oil marketing companies (OMCs) have reported that nearly 86 per cent of PMUY beneficiaries who are at least one year old have returned for the second refill,” Pradhan said in written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
The use of LPG by PMUY beneficiary household depends on several factors, which include food habits, cooking habits, availability and accessibility to LPG, price of LPG, free availability of firewood and cow dung, he said. To encourage the PMUY beneficiaries to adopt and use LPG on a sustained basis, oil firms are offering smaller 5 kg cylinder, which costs less, in place of traditional 14.2 kg cylinder. A 5-kg LPG refill costs about Rs 263 as compared to Rs 494.35 for a 14.2-kg cylinder.
