Dissatisfaction with the LPG provider? The relief can be around the corner. In the transmission of the portability of the mobile number, consumers will soon be allowed to change its supplier without changing their existing connection, offering more selection and improved service.
The Council for the Oil and Regulatory Gas regulator (PNGRB) called for comments on the parties and consumers for LPG interoperability.
PNGRB, inviting comments, said in situations where the local distributor faces operating restrictions, consumers often have limited alternatives, leading to hardships.
“There may be other reasons, and the consumer must have the freedom of choice at LPG of the company/sellers, especially if the price of the cylinder is the same,” he said.
The UPA government, in October 2013, launched a pilot portability of the LPG connection in 24 districts, covered 13 countries and prolonged it by Pan-India in January 2014, covering 480 districts.
However, LPG consumers allowed limited possibilities to change only by their retailers, not oil companies.
This meant that Indian Gas consumer from Indian Oil Corporation had the opportunity to choose from Indan Gas retailers in the area. However, the consumer could not switch to Bharat gas from Bharat Petroleum or HP gas Hindustan Petroleum.
Portability among them was not legally possible at the time, because the law stipulated that the lpg cylinder belonging to a particular company, which is to be submitted only to this company for supplementation.
PNGRB is now also trying to allow portability between them.
“Strengthen the continuity of the LPG offer and protect consumers’ confidence, PNGRB calls on opinions and proposals from consumers, distributors, civil society organizations and other stakeholders for measures that could facilitate time access to supplementary supplements – allowing consumers to be delivered from the nearest available distributor. regulation of disruption.
PNGRB said India has achieved almost universal LPG households with more than 32 CRORE connections from FY25.
“However, the persistent consumer complaint remains more than 17 lamps per year,” he added.
“While oil marketing companies (OMC) are trying to deal with complaints, consumers have no opportunity to migrate from one seller OMC/LPG on another.” Although interoperability has been accepted in telephony with great success, the same thing in the LPG sector did not happen.
“Recent reports from various regions have emphasized a number of cases of disturbance of the offer and extended delays in LPG supply in some cases, in some cases reaching up to several weeks. Such interruptions caused households and commercial facilities, especially in areas where local distributors face suspension or operating restrictions.
An approach focused on continuity
“This development underlines the importance of accepting the approach to continuity to protect consumers from service failure and ensuring continuous access to this basic fuel,” Pngrb said.
In the 2014 scheme, OMC created more than 1,400 clusters, distributors in more than 480 districts, with a diameter of almost 4 cluster distributors from which you can choose. LPG consumer on these markets could move to the distributor of its selection within the LPG group distributors in the vicinity within the LPG connection scheme.
Once comments have been taken, PNGRB will frame the rules and instructions for LPG portability and correct the date for its introduction in the country. For the time being, comments have been invited by mid -October.
Published – 28 September 2025 22:49
