New Delhi, Aug 8 (IANS) Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri highlighted on Friday that India sells LPG at the cheapest prices in the world, despite being an importer, enabling more than 10.33 crore Ujjwala families to cook food at just Rs 6 per day due to the affordable fuel.

“Our energy sector oil marketing companies suffered heavy losses to make LPG available to kitchens at nearly half the cost at which it was being sold in the countries in our neighbourhood,” the minister said.

He pointed out that even when LPG prices soared by 63 per cent in the international market amid global uncertainty, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy insulated Indian households against the price rise and ensured they didn’t feel any negative impact.

The minister said that by making LPG available at a price lower than cost, the public sector oil marketing companies have suffered underrecoveries to the tune of approximately Rs 41,000 crore during the financial year 2024-25. Friday’s Cabinet decision paves the way for partial reimbursement of Rs 30,000 crore to the public sector oil companies against these under-recoveries.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by PM Modi, has decided that Rs 30,000 crore will be paid in twelve parts to the public sector oil companies, which have kept the LPG prices stable.

The compensation, which will be divided amongst the three energy sector oil marketing companies – Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum – will support the financial health of these companies, which ensure availability, affordability and sustainability of energy supply for the citizens of the country in difficult geopolitical times and uncertainties, the minister said.

“In the last 11 years of the Narendra Modi government, we have witnessed a major transformation in India’s energy landscape, with special focus on providing access to clean energy to the masses,” Puri said.

The minister said that about 56 lakh domestic LPG cylinders are delivered every day, about 6 crore consumers visit retail outlets every day across the country, and to strengthen the availability of fuel in rural areas, of the total LPG distributors added during the last decade, around 86 per cent are rural distributors.

The LPG pipe network has also been strengthened. LPG pipelines of about 3,000 km have been laid since 2014. The Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG pipeline is the world’s largest LPG pipeline of 2,805 km, and the Paradip-Haldia-Motihari pipeline of 1,707 km is under construction, the minister added.

–IANS

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