Bid goodbye to pilferages as transparent LPG cylinders are going to be a reality soon

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Transparent LPG, or cooking gas cylinders, will soon make way to your home and the pilot projects have already begun in Pune and Ahmedabad.

These transparent LPG cylinders will come as a huge relief to consumers, who are routinely frustrated over less quantity of gas in steel cylinders. Despite instructions from the gas companies to carry weighing scales for checking weight of cylinders, majority of the delivery vendors either get a rigged spring balance or no weighing scale at all.

2016 has been declared as the ‘Year of LPG Consumers’ and various measures are being initiated by petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan to provide clean fuel to the entire India.

The idea behind transparent cylinders is to bring a sense of accountability and transparency into the system and provide value for money to the consumers.

The minister had recently assured that the government is working on the modalities for launching composite transparent cylinder but assured it would be a reality in FY 2016-17.

“Efforts are being made to expedite launch of the pilot project, which is subject to successful supply of composite cylinders by the manufactures and getting statutory approvals,” Pradhan said.

However, these transparent cylinders will be double the cost of steel ones.

But, Indian consumers will be satisfied that they are getting full gas as it will be impossible for the distributors of LPG cylinders to deliver less quantity.

Sources said the composite transparent LPG cylinder will be made available in this fiscal only and the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) will be procuring these cylinders through competitive bids by floating public tender.

“We expect large number of bids from various cylinder manufacturers. This will help in price discovery through competitive bidding,” said a senior oil company official.

A feasibility study on marketing of LPG in Composite cylinders by Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) is underway and a public tender has been invited for procurement of composite cylinders by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).

“While the cost of procurement of composite transparent LPG cylinders is presently estimated at around Rs 2500-3000 (almost double the value of existing steel cylinders), the cost will go down subsequently as we move to bulk procurement of these cylinders…so for consumers it may initially mean slightly higher security deposit, which too may be shared by the oil companies. The details are being worked out in this respect,” the oil company official said.

“We conduct sudden surprise random checks at the godowns of distributors to prevent any pilferages…further all the distributors are under instructions to provide portable weighing scales to all their delivery boys for checking weight of the cylinder at the time of delivery. Whenever customers receive underweight cylinder, the distributors are under instructions to replace the same with correct weight cylinders,” said a senior oil company official.

Alongside, the distributors have also been instructed to ensure that the seals are verified & shown to the customers at the time of delivery. Joint inspections/ raids are conducted along with State Civil Supplies Deptt to arrest the menace of pilferage of LPG and cases are filed by the District Administration against the culprits under various provisions of Essential Commodities Act and other relevant acts.

OMCs have also introduced Tamper Evident Seals on pan India basis from 01.04.2016 to prevent pilferage/supply of underweight cylinders. In all established cases of supply of underweight cylinders/ pilferage by distributors, action is initiated as per provisions of Marketing Discipline Guidelines/ Distributorship Agreement.

(Anupama Airy is the Founder and Editor of EnergyInfraPost.com and DefenceAviationPost.com. She can be reached at anupama.airy@gmail.com​, Twitter handle: @anupamaairy)

(Image: Indiatimes)