Ujjwala fuels State’s LPG footprint to 51%

With firewood being the fuel of hearths of a whopping over three-fifth of households in Odisha as recently as year 2015, the big change fuelling now is over a half of households in the State have the LPG to fuel their hearths.

The Ujjwala Yojana has triggered the transition in State, where LPG has emerged as the dominant cooking fuel in 2018 vis-a-vis cooking fuel of mere 9.8 per cent households in 2011 census.

Sample this: As per 2011 census, LPG was used as cooking fuel by mere 9.8 per households against use of firewood as cooking fuel by a high of over 65 per cent. However, prior to Ujjwala Yojana, the LPG footprint in Odisha had improved up to mere 26 per cent households in year 2015. But by 2017 end the LPG footprint in State has crossed the 51 per cent mark, though Odisha is still fourth from bottom as per LPG footprint in country. In the eastern region (A&N, Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha), Odisha is only ahead of Jharkhand in LPG penetration. Odisha has still to go a long way to catch up with national average penetration of 79 per cent.

According to data available with the oil marketing companies here, over 54.4 lakh households have LPG connection in year ended on December 2017 in the State vis-a-vis around 26.7 lakh in 2015 and 9.5lakh in 2011.

The total households in Odisha have now gone up to touch around 105.8 lakh against over 96.6 lakh households in 2011. And total LPG refills in the year 2017 witnessed in Odisha were pegged at a whopping 2.3 crore. An assessment shows that the average refills per year in Odisha in year 2017 were around six cylinders.

Data shows when the State has added a whopping 27.7 lakh more households under LPG network between June 2015  and December end 2017, around 18.5lakh connections from 27.7 lakh were provided under the Ujjwala scheme in the period June 2016 – December end 2017. And of over 2.3crore LPG sale in Odisha in 2017, a high of over 65.96 lakh were refills used by the Ujjwala consumers in State. The assessment estimated the refill per capita by Ujjwala consumers in State at over 3 cylinders against national average of around 4.3 per year.

“The average three refills is due to poor refill order in some tribal areas, where tribal households with LPG connections have reverted to use of firewood during winter and summer months as it is available freely,” observed a senior Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) official.

Interestingly, as per CRISIL survey in Odisha, the free firewood used as cooking fuel stood at around 26 per cent, whereas around 74 per cent firewood is paid for by households with the monthly bill amounting to around Rs 371.

 The same survey noted that when nationally females were willing to spend Rs 317/month to buy LPG; in Odisha the figure stood at around Rs 300/month. The CRISIL survey has identified high initial cost, recurring cost as main barriers behind low LPG penetration in Odisha. And, accordingly Ujjwala has attended to by supplying LPG free of cost but post subsidy the refills in Odisha now cost at around Rs 500/cylinder.