Why in News: –
The Subsidised LPG prices have increased Rs 50 per cylinder this month but industry executives said there is not much clarity on whether most customers would receive subsidies to cushion the impact.
GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Syllabus: –
GS-2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY:
- Prime Minister’s Lighting Scheme was launched by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on 1 May 2016 to distribute 50 million LPG connections to women of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.
- A budgetary allocation of ?80 billion (US$1.1 billion)was made for the scheme. In the first year of its launch, the connections distributed were 22 million against the target of 15 million.
- As of 23 October 2017, 30 million connections were distributed, 44% of which were given to families belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
- Since 2016, PMUY has provided LPG connections to 8 million poor households to reduce women’s drudgery and indoor air pollution.
- Providing an upfront connection subsidy of ?1,600, PMUY helped expand LPG coverage to more than 85% of households. In comparison, less than a third of Indian households used LPG as their main cooking fuel in 2011.
The cooking gas subsidy:
- The government, cooking gas subsidy has shrunk to Rs 1,126 crore in the first half of this financial year from Rs 22,635 crore for the entire 2019-20.
- LPG subsidy had fallen 28% in 2019-20 from Rs 31,447 crore in 2018-19 as oil prices stayed low and domestic refill rates rose.
- Multiple studies assessing PMUY concluded that while access has increased, many new beneficiaries are not consuming LPG in a sustained manner.
- Large-scale primary surveys by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) suggest that, on average, recent PMUY beneficiaries consumed only about half the LPG compared to long-standing regular consumers.