LPG Gas Booking: LPG bookings zoom 200%; oil companies say measures in place | India Business News
Measures have been put in place to ensure uninterrupted home delivery of refills, officers of state-run fuel retailers and All India LPG Distributors Federation told TOI on Wednesday amid reports of delayed deliveries from a few states as police blocked movement of vehicles or personnel carrying cylinders.
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Indian Oil, the country’s largest supplier, received over 31 lakh bookings on Tuesday, up 215% from 9.84 lakh on Sunday, the day ‘janata curfew’ was in force. Distributors federation president Chandra Prakash said countrywide bookings have risen by 15-20% but still dealers were getting enough cylinders, which were being delivered. Some 24,382 distributors across the country deliver 50-52 lakh refills daily.
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday reviewed the supply arrangements with executives of state-run fuel retailers. On Wednesday, IndianOil said it has rejigged operations at major refineries to raise LPG output and working at bottling plants and deliveries to dealer are being streamlined within the limitations of health safety and social distancing norms to meet higher demand. The emergency service cell number 1906 for LPG customers is also operational.
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Explaining the spike in bookings, Prakash said apprehension among consumers that they will not get subsidy — even if they are still within the 12-cylinder a year norm — after March made them book refills. Moreover, consumers who still had the second cylinder but thought their connected refill was about to run out booked refills.
He said some dealers faced problem in Bihar and Jharkhand when people thronged the dealer’s godowns with empty cylinders. “Police is not sensitive in all states. Police in some areas of UP and the two states mentioned have blocked transporters and vehicles or delivery boys even when they showed their I-cards etc,” he said. LPG service has been exempted from the lockdown.
But as the lockdown progresses, supply chain might be affected. “Delhi and other metros are well-placed as they have bottling plants nearby. But cities that are far from the plants could face delays as truckers find it difficult to ply as there is no food available en route due to the lockdown.
“We have decided to make arrangements at our godowns for putting up and feeding the truckers and staff. Delivery boys are being given face masks, gloves and wash facitlities. We request the government to extend their current insurance coverage for accidents etc for COVID-19 as well,” Prakash said.
There are 27.59 crore active LPG customers in the domestic category. The refills are supplied by 195 LPG bottling plants all over India with rated bottling capacity of around 18.9 million tonne per annum.