Cabinet OKs ₹22k cr subsidy grant to oil cos for LPG losses

The Centre will pay Rs 22,000 crore as a one-time grant to state-run fuel retailers to compensate them for keeping price of LPGliquefied petroleum gas supplied as cooking fuel to households in check in spite of a surge in the benchmark rates.

The proposal was cleared by the Cabinet on Wednesday with the aim of bridging the losses on LPG accumulated by the three state-run fuel retailers between June 2020 and June this year.

India imports LPG, mostly from Saudi Arabia, to meet about half of the demand. The Saudi contract price, the benchmark followed by the state-run fuel retailers, has risen 300% during this period but LPG refill rates have been raised by 72%, the government said in a statement.