The proposal to expand free cooking gas programme to include 8 crore poor families, up 60% from 5 crore planned earlier, will give more women freedom from hazardous kitchen smoke, but the likely increase in the subsidy has raised concerns that oil companies may have to foot the bill.
Shares of state oil firms fell following the announcement in the Budget. The Ujjwala Yojana, conceived two years ago, has ensured record penetration of cleaner cooking gas among poor families, and is widely believed to have paid electoral dividends to the BJP in assembly polls, triggering demand from the oil ministry to expand its scale.
“Encouraged by the huge success of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in improving ‘Ease of Living’ of poor families, especially in rural India, the target of PMUY has been revised to 8 crore. Would like to assure the nation that we will achieve this target well within the deadline,” oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted. So far 3.35 crore poor families have been enrolled under the scheme, which now has a target of 8 crore subscribers by March 2020.
Expanding consumer base for subsidised cooking gas, along with sharply rising oil prices, can significantly expand the government’s fuel subsidy burden. However, the government has provided a subsidy of Rs 24,933 crore for 2018-19, slightly higher than Rs 24,460 crore in the current financial year. Read More
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