There is good news for households. The government has enhanced the cap on supply of subsidised cylinders from three to five for the period between September 15, 2012 and March 31, 2013.
This decision comes close on the heels of increasing the cap on supply of subsidised cylinders from six to nine per year, effective from April 1, 2013.
Orders pertaining to enhancing the quota from three to five subsidised cylinders till March 31, 2013 have already been issued to the oil companies and the new rule comes into effect immediately. However, there will be no refund, if a consumer had already used non-subsidised cylinders beyond the restricted three-cylinder quota.
But the good thing is that a consumer can avail the rest of the two cylinders till March 31, 2013, a senior official from the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited told The Hindu .
Consumers, who had already booked a cylinder, but are yet to be supplied, can claim for the subsidised cylinder. But for those, who have already received a non-subsidy cylinder, there will be no refund. They will have to claim for subsidised cylinder during the next booking, informed another senior official from the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited. The government had limited supply of subsidised cylinders to six per year in September last. It was declared then that irrespective of the cylinders used, a consumer could avail three subsidised cylinders from September 15 to March 31, 2013. This cap on three subsidised cylinders for the above period was now increased to five, he said.
Oil company authorities claimed that works pertaining to upgrading software with new rules were already completed.
Dealers will be maintaining a database of the consumers’ bookings and based on the bookings, the supply of non-subsidy cylinders will be decided. The same will be also entered in the consumers’ passbooks and there will be no confusion over calculation of subsidised cylinders, said the official.
