Parul
At the Asia LPG Summit, that was held March 3–4 in Indonesia, Oil Secretary MM Kutty said that “the government’s push to provide clean cooking fuel to every household has turned India into the world’s second largest LPG consumer whose demand is projected to rise 34 per cent by 2025.”
He further added that active liquified petroleum gas (LPG) consumers have grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent, from 14.8 crore in 2014–15 to 22.4 crore in 2017–18. In fact, the rapid increase in population combined with LPG penetration in rural areas has resulted in an average growth of 8.4 per cent in LPG consumption, making India the second largest consumer of LPG in the world at 22.5 million tonnes.
According to the (oil) ministry’s projections and forecasts, LPG consumption in India is expected to grow to 30.3 million tonnes by 2025 and 40.6 million tonnes by 2040. Kutty also said that the government has taken a number of initiatives to promote usage of LPG across the country especially in rural households which otherwise depend on traditional fuels that are hazardous to health and are polluting in nature.
In India, free cooking gas (LPG) connections are provided to the poor under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) of providing and over 6.31 crore connections have been provided since the launch of the scheme on May 1, 2016.
The secretary also said, “before March 31, 2020, we will provide LPG connections to eight crore households under PMUY,” adding that “LPG connection is issued in the name of a woman member of the household.”
Further adding, the Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana was launched in May 2016 with the objective of providing free LPG connections to five crore women belonging to poor households over a period of three years. This scheme has now been revised to target eight crore LPG connections by the fiscal 2020. With the revised targets, the scheme now covers all the vulnerable and disadvantaged sections of the society having no LPG connections, Pradhan informed.
He said the coverage of LPG in the country has now reached close to 90 per cent, rising from around 55 per cent in 2014. “We are confident to meet our target of 8 crore connections in the pursuit of tackling health and environmental problems and driving social change through women empowerment,” said the oil minister.
