State may absorb additional VAT on LPG cylinder

Several consumers complain that while they are paying up front Rs. 916 on the delivery of LPG cylinder, only Rs. 435 is being credited into their account and Rs. 45 collected as VAT additionally

The LPG consumers who are paying an additional Rs. 45 per cylinder over and above the subsidy entitlement of Rs. 435, may soon get some relief.

Under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme extended to LPG consumers in the five districts of Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Chittoor, Anantapur and East Godavari, the subsidy amount is being credited into their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. These consumers would also have to link their Aadhaar numbers to the oil companies data bases.

However, several consumers complained that while they were paying up front Rs. 916 on the delivery of LPG cylinder, only Rs. 435 was being credited into their account and Rs. 45 collected as VAT additionally. Earlier, the State was extending an additional subsidy of Rs. 25 on each LPG cylinder to the oil companies. But under the DBT scheme, there was no such mechanism. Thus the government is considering to absorb the increased VAT burden of Rs. 23 to give relief to the consumer, sources said.

Meanwhile, the linkage of Aadhaar numbers of LPG consumers with their bank accounts and data bases of oil companies was still at 55 per cent in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy, officials said. A meeting held with UID officials, bankers, oil marketing companies and Collectors on Wednesday said the process should be speeded up as there were only 50 more days for the August 30 deadline.

After that, consumers who failed to fulfil Aaddhar linkage would have to pay full amount of Rs. 916 for the LPG cylinder.

The Aadhaar-LPG linkage touched about 70 per cent in three other districts in the State.

The DBT scheme for LPG consumers was launched in 20 districts across the country in the first phase.

About 60 per cent of consumers in these districts were in five districts of the State.