The Narendra Modi government said that it has saved Rs 14,672 crore in subsidy for the year 2014-15 after rolling out the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme for cooking gas cylinders.
Defending against false claims allegations, the government said that subsidy savings as a result of PAHAL is a result of multiplicity of factors such as prevailing crude prices, exchange rate and the tax structure in various states.
There were 18.19 crore registered LPG consumers and 14.85 crore active consumers as on April 1, 2015, implying a gap of 3.34 crore consumers. The duplicate/fake connections were blocked under the direct benefit transfer scheme, called PAHAL and related initiatives.
“If we take into account the quota of 12 cylinders per consumer and the average LPG subsidy of Rs.336 per cylinder for the year 2014-15, estimated savings in LPG subsidy due to the blocking of 3.34 crore accounts work out to Rs.14,672 crore during that year,” the Oil Ministry said in a statement.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com