It is unlikeliest of the scenarios to steal a march. Yet, demonetisation of the Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 currency notes seems to have ignited competition among public sector oil marketing companies in the cooking gas segment. Sensing an opportunity, over the last few days, the Bharat Petroleum Corporation is marketing new LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) connections on a private radio channel. “We accept Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes,” is how the advertisement ends, a message bound to strike a chord with people finding ways to utilise the demonetised currency notes.
Though the other two oil marketing corporations, Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum, also accept demonetised notes towards purchase of new LPG connections as well as refills, the advertisement is a pointer to the level of competition. Time is also a factor with the government permitting petrol bunks and LPG distributors of the national oil companies to accept the notes till November 24. A BPCL official, who did not want to be named, said the advertisement was the brainchild of Bharat Gas distributors with its emphasis on informing customers of availability of new LPG connections across the counter. Once the customer places a request with the call centre (74160-74160), the LPG agency concerned for the area would get in touch with them. BPCL is placed third with regard to the customer base in Telangana, a State with around 1.10 crore LPG connections. The race for the top slot is between Indian Oil and HPCL. The companies are likely to see significant accretion to their customer base with the launch of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a programme to provide LPG connections to BPL (below the poverty line) women.
A senior official of the IOC said the scheme, which was rolled out last month in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, was likely to be launched in Telangana in the coming weeks. The deposit fee was waived under the scheme and the customer could avail loan for the stove and refill. The target would be 10 lakh connections in the State, he said, adding oil companies were augmenting their infrastructure ahead of the rollout. For the time being, however, demonetised notes are in currency. It is challenging for cooking gas agencies, Federation of LPG Distributors of India president P. Venkateswar Rao said.
