FM ask banks to gear up for LPG subsidy rollout

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today asked banks to gear up for the rollout of direct cash subsidy scheme to cooking gas (LPG) consumers throughout the country.

“I have asked them (bankers) to get ready for the rollout of LPG for the whole country,” Chidambaram told reporters after a meeting with senior PSU bankers here.

As a pilot project, the government has decided to give cash subsidy to LPG consumers under its ambitious Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme soon, and will cover 20 districts by May 15.

LPG consumers will get about Rs 4,000 per annum in cash from the government, and they will have to then buy LPG at market price of Rs 901.50 per 14.2-kg cylinder.

Currently, each consumer is entitled to 9 cylinders of 14.2-kg each at subsidised price of Rs 410.50. On each of these cylinder the government bears a subsidy Rs 435.

There are about 14 crore LPG consumers in the country. Regarding the second phase of DBT scheme to be launched from July in 78 districts, Chidambaram said: “They (bankers) have all said that they will be ready in the 78 districts”.

The Planning Commission would be holding meetings with the 78 district collectors.

“We have said the lead bank managers of 78 districts will also attend the meeting,” the Finance Minister said.

The government has already capped the number of subsidised cylinders at six per household per year and beyond that a consumer has to pay the market price. However, some of the state governments are providing more subsidised cylinders and bearing the burden themselves.

The government expects that the DBT will eliminate all ghost LPG connections and diversion of cylinders.

In the first phase of DBT that started in January, 43 districts are being covered.

Under the DBT scheme, subsidies and other benefits are transfered directly into the Aadhaar linked bank account of beneficiary.

Source:www.moneycontrol.com

 

LPG in DBT: PMO writes to Oil Ministry

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Aadhar number, consumer database, direct benefit transfer, LPG, Oil Minister, Prime Minister's Office

With LPG set to be included in the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) subsidy scheme, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has written to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas asking it to expedite preparations for the roll out in 20 districts from May 15.

The Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Pulok Chatterji has written to Petroleum and Natural Gas Secretary Vivek Rae underlining the need for ensuring that consumer database with marketing companies and bank accounts is seeded with Aadhaar numbers.

The financial transactions will have to be managed by the three oil marketing companies (OMCs) — IOC, HPCL and BPCL — without having to deal with intermediate agencies, Mr. Chatterji wrote, adding “this is a good base to begin from.” The letter recalls the decision of the National Committee on DBT, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on April 5 to roll out the transfer of LPG subsidy through DBT in 20 districts with effect from May 15, 2013.

The roll out is to take place in other districts after crossing a certain threshold in Aadhaar enrolment in each district.

“I am writing to you to highlight the importance of expediting the steps that need to be taken by your Ministry to ensure the timely roll out,” Mr. Chatterji told Mr. Rae.

“The numbers involved and the money to be transacted are much larger than in any other scheme under DBT so far. I am confident that with dedication and effort, Ministry of P&NG and the OMCs will be able to roll out the transfer of LPG subsidy through DBT successfully on May 15, 2013,” he said.

He said the Ministry would need to move a note to the Cabinet and obtain whatever approvals are necessary for the roll out.

Mr. Chatterji said as far as LPG subsidy is concerned, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is starting from the “fortuitous position” of having a more or less complete digitised database of consumers.

“The main challenge is ensuring that the consumer database with OMCs and the bank accounts of consumers are seeded with Aadhaar numbers,” the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary wrote.

He noted that Aadhaar enrolment in the 43 districts, where DBT was rolled out in January in the first phase, was quite high.

“I learn that Aadhaar seeding in OMC databases has risen considerably in the last four months,” he said, adding the oil marketing companies should make concerted efforts to ensure that seeding rates improve further in the remaining time.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas will need to coordinate with the Department of Financial Services and the banks to ensure that the seeding in customer bank accounts also improves, Mr. Chatterji said, adding a dedicated team in the Ministry for this effort would help.

Source:http://www.thehindu.com

Govt working on extending DBT to LPG, says Moily

New Delhi, The government is working out modalities for the roll out of direct transfer of cash subsidy to cooking gas (LPG) consumers, Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily said on Tuesday.

“We discussed moving LPG under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. We believe LPG subsidy can be given out under DBT. The Finance Ministry is working out modalities of LPG subsidy roll out under DBT,” Moily said after a meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The government was to implement the DBT for LPG in a phased matter beginning with one district and extending to 20 by May 15. It will be extended all over the country as and when beneficiaries get the unique identification number Aadhar and have their bank accounts linked to that.

Once implemented, the government will transfer close to Rs 4,000 to every household annually to enable people to buy 9 cylinders of LPG at market price.
Currently, state-owned oil firms sell domestic cooking gas at a highly subsidised rate of Rs 410.50 per 14.2-kg cylinder. It is half the market price and the difference is made good by the government in the form of subsidy to oil companies.

When DBT is implemented, the government will transfer the Rs 435 per cylinder subsidy to consumers directly instead of giving it to oil companies.

Consumers are entitled to get 9 cylinder of 14.2-kg each at the subsidised rate in a year. So, each consumer will get a little less than Rs 4,000 annually but will have buy LPG at market price. Chidambaram had last week said he would meet his petroleum counterpart to work out modalities for direct fund transfer to LPG customers.

Source: http://www.deccanherald.com

LPG Home delivery in all towns by May 30: Ramzan

Jammu, Apr 08: With the successful implementation of home delivery in Jammu and Srinagar, Minister for Consumers Affairs and Public Distribution and Transport, Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan today directed Oil and Gas Companies to ensure LPG home delivery in all towns of the state by May 30, 2013 positively.

 The Minister said this while reviewing the supply position of LPG in the state and implementation of home delivery in twin capitals of the state at a high level meeting here this morning.

Minister of state for Technical Education, Information and CAPD, Mr Vikar Rasool was also present in the meeting.The Ministers directed the Oil & gas Companies to ask their dealers to setup infrastructure for the purpose in advance and publicise the contact numbers in print media of their respective gas agencies to facilitate   the consumers. He further directed that there would be no point delivery after launching the home delivery in the towns.
The Meeting also discussed the setting up of new gas agencies at block level and asked the secretary CA&PD to visit the locations   identified by the oil and gas companies under RGGVY to ensure that every block of the state was covered under the programme.
Secretary CA&PD, Mohammad Abass, Director CA&PD, Jammu, State Level Coordinator, IOC, J&K, Mr R.K Shahab, Sr. Regional Manager, HPCL, J&k,  Ashwani Kumar, Manager IOCL, Jammu Mr Ajay Wazir, Manager ( sales) BPCL, Jammu,  Ankur Mishra  were present in the meeting.

Source:http://www.risingkashmir.in/

Aadhaar copy must for LPG

Hyderabad,Andhra Pardesh: The confusion over the Aadhaar card only gets bigger. While the state government has announced that consumers of domestic LPG in the city can link their gas connections with Aadhaar just by submitting their enrolment number, the gas agencies are insisting on photocopies of the Aadhaar card before releasing the cylinder.

The gas agencies have made it clear that they will not accept enrolment numbers as they have no instructions to do so from the oil marketing companies. Lakhs of people who have enrolled for Aadhaar only recently and are yet to receive their cards are worried that they will lose the LPG subsidy benefit after the April 15 deadline if the Centre does not extend the deadline further as sought by the state government. Many people in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy district, where the Aadhaar-LPG linkage comes into force, are yet to receive their cards though they people were enrolled two years ago.

Aadhaar enrolment agencies have been set up to cover each and every gas agency in the city encouraging people to enrol for their Aadhaar numbers. Enrolment numbers were issued and people were told that the number could be submitted to the gas agencies to complete Aadhaar-LPG linkage.

However, the staff at gas agencies will accept enrolment numbers only for ‘information purposes’ and not to complete the Aadhaar-LPG linkage. Consumers have been told to submit a photocopy of their Aadhaar cards after they receive them to complete the procedure.

“The Aadhaar enrolment number being issued to consumers is not serving any purpose. The staff at gas agencies says that there is no provision to complete Aadhaar-LPG linkage process with the enrolment number. They need the photocopy of the Aadhaar card as per the instructions from the OMCs,” said P. Phanikumar, a resident of Nampally.

With the April 15 deadline just a week away, consumers want the government and Aadhaar officials to immediately intervene and clear the matter with the OMCs and gas agencies.

Source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com

Book Bharat Gas online

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Book Bharat Gas online

History
LPG as a household cooking fuel was introduced by erstwhile Burmah Shell under the brand name “Burshane” in mid 1955.  The journey of LPG as a domestic fuel continued with Burmah Shell until the Government nationalized the Company Burmah Shell to become Bharat Petroleum.

“Bharatgas” from Bharat Petroleum has dominated the LP Gas market in India for over three decades. It was indeed a great challenge for Bharatgas to replace Burshane as a brand name since “Burshane” had become a generic name in the country for LPG.  Bharat Petroleum’s inspiration to meet every challenge drove them to work towards establishing Bharatgas as a dominant brand.

Achievements
Market research helped in understanding the strength of the brand and out lining the way forward. One of the major changes was to create a Strategic Business Unit to deal with Bharatgas.  Soon programmes totally focused on meeting customers’ need were drawn up.

A pioneer in more ways than one, Bharatgas has brought many innovative offerings to the customers’.

The Corporation was quick to realize the need to look at the needs of the ‘Urban’ and the ‘Rural’ customer differently.

Over the years, the urban Market reach was very large, the customer more sensitive.  Whereas, it was a herculean task to reach the rural consumers primarily due to inhabitation being spread over very far flung areas unlike the congested urban areas, thereby creating a logistic challenge.  Having understood the needs of the two different segments, Bharatgas undertook various initiatives.

Urban
Customer initiatives included launch of an exclusive website http://www.bharatgasonline.in to provide convenience of booking Bharatgas ‘On Line’ to customers. The website also provides a feed back system enabling the consumers to directly speak to the Organisation.  Other methods of booking through IVR systems and drop boxes placed at busy locations in town were also introduced. Booking of Bharatgas is also made available through SMS facility.

Rural
Areas are serviced by the Bharatgas Rural Marketing Vehicles (RMV), comprising of tank truck and the mobile filling unit.  These RMVs service rural areas, where the traditional distributorship network was not present.  The RMVs instill great customer confidence as they can see their cylinders being filled in their presence and checked for safety.

The promise of reaching a sound cylinder with the right Q&Q is indeed fulfilled!
Rural marketing having gathered momentum in India had many MNCs set up rural infrastructure to reach their own product.  ITC’s e-choupal initiatives and the DCM group’s Hariyali Kisan Bazar, are such initiatives.   Bharatgas has leveraged the opportunity to utilize their infrastructure to reach LPG to deep interior rural areas.

Industrial
Customers too have been our focus. Bharatgas has demonstrated the various applications of the wonder fuel LPG for innovative uses in various Industries.

Bharatgas has also introduced various pack sizes to suit the different types of customers.

Piped LPG
is another first from Bharatgas.
Well accepted by major Realty Developers, Bharatgas piped LPG system for multi-storied apartments and shopping malls is gaining popularity.

Value – Added Service
This was in recognition of the need to provide the housewife relief from mundane chores of household shopping for low involvement products; the “Beyond LPG” initiative was launched to provide value to the customers.

This involved the Organisation entering into corporate tie-ups with reputed brands and making available through the distributorship network FMCG as well as home appliances and kitchenware at attractive discounts – all home delivered to the consumers.

The initiative soon gathered momentum and became a successful business model providing value not only to the consumers but the network as well as the Partner Companies.  For Bharat Petroleum it was another successful business venture within 5 years with the involvement of over 25% of the distributors’ voluntarily participating in the business and setting up ‘Bharatgas Shoppes’ with attractive display of product creating a comfortable shopping environment – a far cry from the typical showroom of an LPG distributor.

Bharat Metal Cutting Gas (BMCG)
an innovative product is the result of continuous research. An efficient and cost effective substitute for Acetylene, it is indeed a revolutionary product for the cutting and brazing industry.

The success of the product is not limited to the Indian shores but has traveled to countries in the middle-east as well as Africa.

Leveraging Technology
Harnessing technology has always been on the forefront for maximizing efficiency and achieving greater customer satisfaction.

An exclusive website http://www.bharatgasonline.in providing the convenience of booking Bharatgas ‘On Line’ alongwith information about the product, its uses, safety and conservation tips as well as huge collection of recipes is a popular site for women.

The website also provides a feed back system enabling the consumers to directly speak to the Organisation. Booking of Bharatgas has also been made available through SMS facility.

At the back end, over a decade back the distribution network operation was completely computerized, streamlining operating practices and enhancing efficiency at the distributorship level along with a professional outlook.  Customer focus being a very core objective of the brand, Bharatgas constantly explores opportunities to relate to the customers.

Internally too, process the systems within the Organisation are continuously reviewed and improved to get the best output for the customers.  The state of the art 49 modern filling plants demonstrate the use of technology to provide the customers the best of products and services!  Bharatgas undertook an exercise for ‘Bench Marking’ the best practices, within Bharat Petroleum, the Oil Industry and global practices for adoption in the Organisation. This has certainly further improved the performance of the brand.

Knowledge being a great strength with the employees, Bharatgas looked at the opportunities of providing consultancy services in developing nations for LPG project covering setting up of the facility as well as training.
Continuous communications with the network and employees is recognized as an important means to raise the bar. A bi-monthly publication ‘Bharatgas Times”- an e-magazine promotes sharing of best practices and encourages people towards healthy competition in business and in partnering social objective programmes, thus creating a better society and upgrading the levels of the individual, both in terms of thoughts and actions.

Recognition
In house training and involvement in recognizing creative and innovative challenges is a major objective.  Bharatgas continuously supports innovative ideas by replicating the success story in one area to the rest of the areas.   Similarly, the network is continuously energized with recognition and rewards.

Accolades and Awards have come to Bharatgas in good measure. Recognition for high Safety standards from Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) has been accorded along with a large number of Bottling plants receiving various awards for environment and safety as well distributors receiving customer service awards from institutions.

Environment & Society
The brand just does not limit itself to product and services, it reaches out to belong and be part of the social fabric engaging in life giving and enhancing the quality of life of the less fortunate.

Bharatgas employees as well as the network are engaged in various activities such as helping victims of the natural calamities or acts of insurgence and terrorism.

Initiatives like health checkup camps, eye camps, blood donation drives, providing free spectacles as well as medicines for those who cannot afford is undertaken.  Greening initiatives, Global warming and other environmental issues to save the planet form part of the brand’s regular initiatives.

Brand Values
Team Bharatgas believes that providing value added services to customers will be the ultimate differentiator in the market place.  Understanding customer behavior and tracking their aspirations hold the key to success! This conviction drives us to continuously innovate to provide offering that make a difference to the customers.  Customer convenience is at the core of every action.
http://www.bharatgasonline.in

THINGS YOU DID’NT KNOW ABOUT “Bharatgas” :
»     Present in over 30 million homes.
»     Facilities to book your re-fill cylinders on-line and through SMS.
»
FMCG and home appliances are available at attractive discounts from your Bharatgas distributors.
»
Bharat Metal Cutting Gas -a very cost effective efficient fuel for cutting and brazing operations, a product from Bharatgas.
»
http://www.bharatgasonline.in the only exclusive website for LPG consumers offering a host of information.
»     49 modern filling plants to bottle Bharatgas cylinders.