Ujjwala subsidies may shine bright in next fiscal year as well

livemint.com:

₹300 per LPG cylinder, which is scheduled to end in March this year. “An extension in the subsidy for the next fiscal is likely to be sought. The outgo will be in the range of ₹10,000-12,000 crore," one of the two people mentioned above said, adding the petroleum and natural gas ministry is set to suggest the extension to the finance ministry for the upcoming Union budget.

Queries sent to the spokespeople of the petroleum and finance ministries remained unanswered till press time. On 4 October, the subsidy was increased from ₹200 to ₹300 per cylinder for up to 12 cylinders annually. A price cut of ₹200 per cylinder was also announced earlier on 30 August.

In the national capital, PMUY beneficiaries now pay ₹603 per (domestic) cylinder of cooking gas, while others pay ₹903. PMUY was rolled out in 2016 to provide cleaner cooking fuel to poor households. The beneficiaries were identified through the socio-economic caste census (SECC) list or from seven other identified categories such as scheduled caste households, scheduled tribe households, most backward classes and beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana (Gramin).

In September, the government announced a ₹1,650-crore additional outlay for providing 7.5 million additional free cooking gas connections over three years from FY24 to FY26. To a large extent, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) have absorbed the impact of high prices without fully passing them on to consumers. In October 2022, the government announced a one-time ₹22,000-crore compensation to state-run fuel retailers to offset their losses from selling domestic cooking gas below cost.