Domestic gas consumers in a quandary

The reintroduction of DBT scheme has brought to fore several problems relating to gas subsidy, including the gas agencies not booking cylinders and cancelling existing orders

March 07, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 08:06 am IST - HYDERABAD:

Tough days are back to haunt lakhs of domestic gas consumers in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts ever since the exercise to re-activate Direct Bank Transfer (DBT) of the LPG gas subsidy was reintroduced. Consumers are caught in the conundrum, even as gas companies, authorities and agencies struggle to link Aadhar, gas subsidy and bank accounts.

At present, if you have not submitted your bank and Aadhar card details, chances are that your gas agency will not book a cylinder and cancel existing orders.

“Gas agencies are not taking fresh cylinder bookings unless you have provided the details of your Aadhar card. The IVR response of the gas company is cancelling our orders. There is total lack of proper information available with the gas agencies and there’s no one who can properly guide us,” complains Ch. Sunita, housewife from Miyapur.

Apart from cancellation, there is no timely deposit of subsidy amount in individual bank accounts. In some cases, it is taking anywhere from 26 to 30 days for the amount to get deposited. “Not everyone has Rs. 900 to give when the gas cylinder arrives. With great difficulty, we save to purchase the cylinder. Now, when the time to deposit the subsidy amount has come, I am still waiting since 15 days,” says P. Shiva, an office assistant in Somajiguda.

Ironically, even gas consumers who have decided to opt out of the DBT scheme are facing difficulties. “The gas distributor refuses to accept my online request to remove our names from subsidy scheme. They want us to come personally and submit a letter in writing. But when I went there, the agency is in absolute chaos and nobody had enough patience to address the issue,” says another gas consumer, Anjali, a resident of Mallapur.

Needless to say, consumer activists too have started receiving similar complaints. “It is clear that gas companies have given clear instructions to cancel gas bookings of customers who have not provided their bank details. No gas agency has the right to take such measures and there’s need for regulation,” says senior consumer activist, Rajam Ganesan of Consumer Care Centre.

Members of gas distributors association agree that it’s not right to block cylinders. “We have clearly told our members not to cancel gas bookings. I am personally holding meetings with gas companies to sort out these issues. We are also hoping that subsidy amounts are deposited in the banks at the earliest,” maintained president, TS and AP, Gas Distributors Association, P. Venakteswar Rao.

On their part, authorities have acknowledged shortcomings. “We are regularly holding high level meetings with bankers and gas distributors to make the transition easy. There is no denying the fact that there are problems. We still feel that these are early days and the DBT scheme needs a bit of time to settle down,” says State LPG Co-ordinator for Oil Marketing Companies, Madhukar Ingole.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.