Free LPG cylinder to 8 Crore to Ujjawala family under PMGKY - Perceptions and truth

9 April 2020 , Economic Times - Ujjwala beneficiaries entitled to 3 free LPG cylinders under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, can avail free cylinders up to March 2021

26 march 2020, Navbharat Times https://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/business/business-news/only-3-cylinder-will-be-free-in-pm-garib-kalyan-yojana/articleshow/74831045.cms 

The official announcement was this.

PIB- 26 MARCH 2020:-
[Under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, gas cylinders, free of cost, would be provided to 8 crore poor families for the next three months.]

When you read these both together, It gives an impression that the Government going to provide the 24 crore free LPG cylinder to poor . Figure of 24 crore is from that the 8 *3. Here, 8 crore Ujjawala family and 3 cylinder to each.

Originally the scheme was for the April 2020 to June 2020. Later it was extended multiple times.

PIB - 8 JULY 2020:-
[On review of the scheme, it has been observed that a section of PMUY beneficiaries are yet to utilize the advance credited into their account to purchase the cylinder refill within the scheme period. Hence, the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to extend the time-limit for availing the advance by three months]

Later the Scheme was extended to 30 December 2020. That mean, Ujjwala Beneficiary had a chance to get the 3 Free cylinder in 9 month window of the April 2020 to December 2020. Here I would like to put a fact that on an average the Indian household consume 6.67 cylinder in year that means 5 cylinder in 9 month. But here government announced to provide only 3 free LPG cylinder in 9 months. This was the flaw in the drafting of the scheme. Now let see the implementation of the flawed scheme.

PIB dated 31 December 2020 says

[OMCs have delivered 1413.38 lakh ( 14.13 Cr) refills to PMUY beneficiaries under this Scheme as on 30.11.2020 and more than 7.5 Cr PMUY beneficiaries have availed free cylinders under the scheme]

Here is the information provided to me in the RTI reply

 

First and foremost, I like to point out that, there are 50 lakhs family of the Ujjwala which did not get any free cylinder. You yourself can notice that, Government said in march 2020 that 8 crore families going to get the benefit of scheme and in December 2020, goverment said that 7.5 lakh family get the benefit of scheme. That means, 50 lakhs family excluded from benefit of scheme it means 2.5 crore citizen did not get any benefit of the scheme. This number of 2.5 crore is more than the combined population of the Singapore, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Mauritius, Bhutan and Maldives.

Secondly, when goverment intended to provide the 3 free LPG cylinder to each Ujjwala family then there should be 24 crore free LPG cylinder could have been given. But goverment itself said that it has provided only 14.13 cr free cylinders. Remember that, the goverment has never said that, it will provide 3 free cylinder to Ujjwala family. Goverment said - Free LPG cylinder to Ujjwala family for the 3 months which is later extended to 9 months. So, the question to goverment is that - why there were no taker of the free LPG cylinder when goverment was providing it free? The reasons might be bank access to withdraw subsidy, diversification of the money by household for other exapnse, logistic issue etc. It is on goverment to explain the reasons and not blogger explain the reasons.

Thirdly, From the table, it is clear that there are only 1 crore families ( 45 lakhs of IOCl, 28 lakhs of BPCL and 27 lakhs of HPCL) which availed the all three free LPG cylinder. That mean less than 15% of the all eligible beneficiary of the Ujjwala get the all 3 free cylinder in the 9 months long window to avail the benefit.

Fourthly, This seems small matter, like the rounding errors but it is worth of 90 crore so can not ignore. As per the goverment, they have provided 14.13 crore free cylinder till 30/11/2020 but as per the data given to me it is 14.04 crore free cylinders provided overall. That is the gap of the 9 lakhs cylinder. Keep remember that this gap of the 9 lakh is till the data of the November 2020, this do not include the cylinders provided in December 2020. So the Gap might be 10 lakh or more. This is equal to the 90 crore rupee as per the current market price of the LPG cylinder.