LPG CONSUMERS TO GET FREEDOM WITH GAS PORTABILITY SCHEME

Are you unhappy with the service of your present Gas cylinder distributor? Not to worry, because soon LPG gas cylinder consumers would be able to switch to LPG distributors of their choice, under a recently approved “Portability of LPG connections” scheme.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has approved the Gas portability scheme last month in which consumers would be able to switch between at least four gas cylinder distributing agencies provided in a cluster or locality.

The scheme has been approved in 480 districts across the country, including those in Meghalaya. “We are working out the details and would take action shortly,” East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner, Sanjay Goyal said about the new scheme.

The Central Government together with Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) first launched LPG connection portability scheme in 24 districts covering 13 States in October last year under a pilot project.

Based on its success, the scheme was launched throughout India on January 22, covering a population of over 8.2 crore LPG consumers in 480 districts of the country.

“This measure will bring great relief to those LPG consumers who are unhappy with the services of their current distributor or want to move to an LPG distributor closer to their home,” the Ministry of petroleum and natural gas said in its statement.

The OMCs have made more than 1,400 clusters distributors in over 480 districts with an average of almost 4 distributors per cluster to choose from.

Some of the other features of the scheme are that there would be “no transfer fee or additional security deposit charges” for transfer of connection. The transfers can also be done online.

Meanwhile, some of the consumers have also complained that Gas agencies in the State Capital are indulging in unscrupulous means to dupe the consumers for getting new connection.

“The Gas agencies are forcefully selling cooking gas stoves and many other unwanted items with the new connection. In fact, only the cylinders must be bought from the agencies and buying the rest depends upon the customers. Such violations must be checked by the authorities,” another consumer said.

The Procedure to opt for portability is very simple.  To register for Portability, the LPG Consumers need to do the following:

Visit the website of the Oil Marketing company they are presently with

            www.indane.co.in for IOCL

            www.hpgas.com for HPCL, and

            www.ebharatgas.com for BPCL

●          Register themselves in the site, if not registered already

●          See the distributors in the cluster and their star rating in terms of refill delivery performance

●          Select the distributor of their choice from the cluster and submit request

●          The consumer will receive an email confirming the registration and advising details of further procedure

●          In case of Intra-Company portability request, i.e., within the same company, the LPG consumer has to visit only the new distributor with a copy of the email and get enrolled.

●          In case of Inter-Company transfer, i.e. between two different Oil companies, since the LPG equipment is not compatible across companies, the consumer will have to visit the current distributor and surrender the cylinder and pressure regulator, collect the refund/transfer documents and then approach the distributor of his/her choice for reconnection by paying the same deposit as earlier.

●          No Transfer fee or additional security deposit will be charged for transfer of connection under the portability scheme.