Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on November 27 assured that LPG customers of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) will continue to get cooking gas subsidy even post-privatization.
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"Subsidy on LPG is paid to consumers directly and not to any company. So the ownership of the company that sells LPG is not of any material consequence," said Pradhan.
"Since it is paid directly to consumers, it does not matter if the servicing company is public sector or private sector. LPG subsidy will continue as before to BPCL consumers even after disinvestment," he added.
LPG customers are provided with 12 cooking gas cylinders of 14.2 kg per year at subsidised rate and the subsidy is paid directly to the bank accounts of the users upon order of the refill.
The government is selling its entire 53 percent stake along with management control in BPCL, the nation's second-biggest fuel retailer.
BPCl owns 17,355 petrol pumps, 6,159 LPG distributor agencies, and 61 aviation fuel stations in India, and provides service to 7.3 crore LPG customers. It also operates four refineries in Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerala), Bina (Madhya Pradesh), and Numaligarh (Assam) with a combined capacity of 38.3 million tonnes per annum.