Indian Oil Corporation has blocked five lakh LPG connections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. This was done over a period of one year after the Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG consumer (DBTL) scheme was announced.
“These were blocked because many consumers had multiple connections. In some cases the connections were kept idle and refills were not done for a long period,” B. Ashok, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Oil Corporation, said.
With IOC re-launching DBTL from November 15 in Puducherry and January 2015 in Tamil Nadu more connections are likely to be blocked.
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This would help to curb the grey markets where touts sell cylinders at enormously higher rates. Today, the price of a cooking gas sold through touts is anywhere between Rs. 1,200 and Rs. 1,500.
“During this one year though LPG gas sales went down our refills at gas stations went up. This means some people were using this cylinder for their vehicles. Now they are filling it legally at the outlets,” said another senior official at IOC.
IOC also said that the 5kg cylinder that was introduced in Tamil Nadu in October this year was taking off slowly.
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Till date, around 500 cylinders had been sold in Chennai and Coimbatore. “This is targeted at consumers who keep moving from city to city and are ready to pay a heavy price,” Mr. Ashok said.
The oil firm would also be automating all its petrol stations across the State in the next three years.
“We have automated all the petrol stations in Tiruppur and Puducherry. We will start automation work in Chennai and Coimbatore soon,” Mr. Ashok noted. Till date, nationally, Indian Oil has automated more than 6,200 retail outlets till October 2014 and plans to automate 7,500 outlets by fiscal 2014-15.
In the current fiscal, the firm planned to invest Rs. 750 crore in Tamil Nadu. Of this, more than Rs. 550 crore had already been spent on automation and augmentation of the existing facilities.