The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today approved the Modified Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme in LPG being re-launched in 54 districts from mid-November, 2014 and in rest of country from January 2015.
The Cabinet has revisited the scheme design and processes and after thorough review, it has approved the Modified DBTL which will alleviate the hardships of the LPG consumers faced by them in the earlier scheme.
The salient features of the Modified DBTL scheme:
The subsidy per domestic subsidized cylinder shall be fixed.
All LPG consumers who join the modified DBTL scheme in future can receive LPG cash subsidy by linking Aadhaar number to the LPG and bank database as the primary option or directly into the bank account without necessarily linking it with the use of Aadhaar as the secondary option.
This will ensure that no consumer is denied LPG subsidy for want of Aadhaar number.
All LPG consumers who had already joined the scheme solely based on Aadhaar number will start getting subsidy in their Aadhaar linked bank accounts after scheme is launched.
LPG consumers will get a Grace Period of 3 months during which consumers who have joined the scheme will get subsidy in bank account and others will continue to get cylinders at subsidized price.
LPG consumers who do not join the scheme after the 3 month grace period, will be eligible for an additional subsidy Parking Period of 3 months. During this period, LPG cylinders to all such consumers will be supplied at market price, but the subsidy due on all LPG supplies will be credited to the bank account as soon as consumer joins the scheme in this period and as per entitlement.
LPG consumers who will now join the modified scheme in future will get a permanent advance towards the purchase of the first market priced cylinder equal to the fixed subsidy per cylinder.
A revamped grievance system to attend to consumer grievances will be put in place.
The Modified DBTL scheme will ensure that entitlement of LPG consumers is not diverted for ineligible purpose and public funds so saved can be utilized in nation building. LPG consumers are advised to join the scheme to protect their entitlement of subsidized cylinders.
