-The Telegraph The government today said there was no ban on issuing fresh cooking gas connections but there was a three-week break, pending elimination of duplicate connections and update of software to take into account the six-a-year subsidy cap. State-owned oil firms are carrying out a nationwide exercise to eliminate multiple connections at the same address. Only one LPG connection is allowed at one address while the rest are being disconnected. “When a...

-PTI HYDERABAD: Cash-starved Andhra Pradesh government is finding it tough to honour the Congress high command's directive on increasing the subsidised LPG quota from six to nine cylinders per family a year. The government, that is surviving by selling its securities every month to raise funds, is not in a position to foot the additional subsidy bill on LPG, sources said. Preliminary estimates suggest that the state government will have to bear a...

-The Economic Times The government's decision to cap supply of subsidised cooking gas cylinders to six a year would be difficult to implement and encourage black marketing, oil industry officials said.   There could be an opportunity to divert cheaper cylinders from customers whose yearly consumption is less than six refills, industry officials said. According to the oil ministry 44% of consumers take six cylinders or less in a year. All India LPG Distributors...

Plans are afoot to cap the number of subsidised LPG cylinders at six to eight per annum to reduce the losses of state-run oil firms and bring down the burgeoning subsidy bill. Oil ministry officials said consumers might have to pay more for every additional cylinder, and the amount would be gradually linked to market rates. Sources said the finance ministry had asked the oil ministry to revisit its proposal made last...

-The Economic Times Open-ended consumption subsidies on petroleum products have wrought havoc on government finances. Reportedly, the trio of public sector oil marketing companies have of late blocked some 3.8 million parallel household connections of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), in a bid to rationalise the subsidy outgo. The move to weed out multiple LPG connections does make sense. But we need to keep the big picture in mind and overhaul the pricing and...