CCOIMBATORE : The number of cooking gas connections in India has gone up from 13 crore in 2014 to 20 crore, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.
This number will swell to 27 crore over the next two-and-a-half years, he added. He was speaking at the national convention of All India LPG Distributors Federation here on Tuesday.
Pradhan pointed out that every year, around 5,00,000 women die as a result of domestic pollution due to usage of unhealthy fuel for cooking. The government plans to give 50 million connections for women in rural India, he added.
Pradhan also insisted that safety is also a priority for the government, which is why it was pushing consumers to buy LPG insurance. The target of 15 million new LPG connections under the Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was achieved in December, three months prior to the deadline, he pointed out. The government’s target for 2017-18 is 1.5 crore connections and two crore for 2018-19. According to the minister, 90 per cent of the fuel outlets run by oil marketing companies in Tamil Nadu are digitally enabled.
“Tamil Nadu is one of the progressive states as far as digital transaction is concerned,” he said, adding that following demonetisation, digital transaction in the state has gone up to 28 per cent from five per cent. He added that the government plans to give an incentive of `5 per LPG cylinder booking if the customer pays digitally.
He noted that Tamil Nadu has an LPG penetration of 85 per cent, placing the state higher than its peers. The national average for LPG penetration is only 71 per cent.