Auto LPG price touched an all time high of ₹55.51 a litre in Chennai with oil companies revising rates from Sunday. In Madurai, a litre was sold at ₹54.41 and in Coimbatore it was ₹52.97/litre.
It went up by ₹5.41 from ₹50.10 a litre on July 1 in Chennai. It was ₹32.02 a litre in May 2020, and ₹44.55 in January 2021. The price did go up to ₹53.17 a litre in April but went down to ₹47.53 a litre in June.
“It is putting an unnecessary burden on us. We cannot demand higher rates since customers are also not in a position to pay much. We have just about started getting trips with the lockdown being lifted,” said Selvam, an autorickshaw driver, who urged the government to revise meter fares. It has been eight years since the last revision. A source in the industry said a large section of call taxies that bought BS VI petrol vehicles have converted them to LPG vehicles.
“Though it is still not legal, this conversion has been done without permission. Conversion to LPG is allowed only in the case of private vehicles and not for passenger vehicles. These car owners had to opt for this since diesel variants were not available for BS VI vehicles. They cannot afford to drive using petrol,” he said.
Tamil Nadu Independent Rental Vehicle Association, general secretary, S. Jude Mathew, said compressed natural gas (CNG) is available at ₹51.
Push for CNG
“We want government to provide permits for cars and even semi-trailers that use CNG. Under the Centre’s Mudra Scheme we only get a loan up to ₹10 lakh, we want that to be increased to ₹20 lakh so that we can shift to CNG. Nearly two lakh vehicle owners will benefit from this,” he said.
A fuel dealer in Coimbatore said auto LPG was doing quite well since it was just half the price of petrol and diesel. “Cars too have converted to auto LPG. People who bought new vehicles have LPG variants,” he added.
