Kerala State Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (Consumerfed) plans to expand the reach of its brand of cooking gas, Neethi Gas, following drastically changed LPG supply scenario.
Neethi Gas now has a chance to make a comeback with the Union government capping subsidised cooking gas supply. A lot of customers had deserted Neethi Gas because of the price difference between the subsidised gas and the gas supplied by the Cooperative, said managing director of the apex cooperative Riji G. Nair.
He told The Hindu Neethi Gas was launched during the acute shortage of cooking gas in the State in 1997-98. The gas supply arm of Consumerfed was now in good health after it seeing losses of about Rs. 15 crore.
The Palakkad bottling plant operated by Consumerfed for Neethi Gas now meets a portion of the demand for bottled gas from BPCL.
Neethi Gas has around 20,000 customers. Mr. Nair said the apex cooperative had around 60,000 customers but a large number of them left Neethi Gas for various reasons. Neethi Gasrequires 12,000 filled cylinders per day.
Mr. Nair said there were some restrictions now on providing new connections .He said plans were at the initial stage for expanding the bottling facility. The Palakkad facility supplies between 5,000 and 6,000 LPG cylinders to Bharat Gas daily. Consumerfed purchases cooking gas from the open market at the international rates and bottles the gas. At present the agency purchases 90,000 kg of gas per month from the open market. Neethi Gas, which is popular in Malappuram and Thrissur, hopes to make a comeback.
