The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry, in a bid to put an end to monopolistic practices of LPG connection dealers, is considering allowing portability of connections among the three oil marketing companies .
“Like portability in mobile numbers which allows the customer to change his service provider by paying a small one time fee, the Petroleum Ministry is also in favour of allowing portability of LPG connections allowing the customer to not only change the company but also the dealer,” a senior official in the Petroleum Ministry said.
In order to bring about more transparency in the delivery of LPG cylinders, the oil marketing companies (OMCs) are contemplating putting the waiting list of customers on the portal, last date of delivery from the distributor and the status of wait list clearance on the website of the OMCs.
In order to improve the services further and make the dealers accountable, the OMCs would also come out with rating of dealers and distributors in which the feedback from the customers would form the basis of rating of the dealer. “Any adverse feedback about the dealer from the customers could possibly lead to cancellation of his dealership also. The Government has already initiated pilot projects in this regard in Chennai, Chandigarh, Meerut, Satara, Pondicherry, Bhubneshwar and Mumbai in which more than 1.10 lakh customers have participated,” the official added.
In a related move, the OMCs have also resumed issuing of new subsidised cooking gas connections and the first in the series would be released for the North-East states.
“Prospective customers, who have registered for new LPG connections till October 15 with gas distributors of oil marketing companies in Meghalaya, Sikkim, Nagaland and Andaman & Nicobar Islands and who do no posses LPG connection, can now avail of a subsidised new LPG connection,” an Indian Oil Corporation official said. The same for customers in J&K, HP, Manipur and Tripura would be announced soon.
IOC said though oil firms had stopped releasing new connections pending completion of de-duplication process, they had continued to accept registration of new allotments.
For customer convenience, oil marketing companies have also extended the deadline for completion of Know-Your Customer (KYC) forms till November 30.
