Port Blair, Apr 20: Government will provide over Rs 1700 crore by way of subsidy for transportation of petrol, diesel, domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene for public distribution system (PDS) to remote and far-flung areas. "As a part of our commitment to provide services at affordable price, the government has formunated a scheme for subsidizing transportation cost to remote and far flung areas," Petroleum Minister Ram Naik said at the inauguration of a LPG bottling plant here today.
This would be over and above the Rs 4,500 crore subsidy the government provides for LPG and kerosene.
"A cylinder of LPG would have been costlier by Rs 370, a litre of kerosene by Rs 0.60, petrol by Rs 0.60 and diesel by Rs 0.70 at Port Blair if the transportation costs were not subsidized," he said. The government is subsidizing the transportation of PDS kerosene and LPG to the extent of Rs 9.9 crore every year, he said adding the transport subsidy on petrol and diesel of about Rs 4.1 crore per year is borne by state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) as a social cost.
Naik said the "deepam scheme" of Andhra Pradesh would be replicated in Andaman and Nicobard Island, wherein the UT administration would provide Rs 1000 to every family below the poverty line for taking LPG connection. LPG customers in Andaman and Nicobar Island has gone up by 130 per cent in the past four years and today stands at over 32,000. To cater to the growing demand, IOC would expand its LPG distributorship by appointing six new dealers. Bureau Report