NEW DELHI: Cooking gas
dealers will no longer be able to enroll new customers as the
government has centralised the process and asked the state firms to
approve fresh applications after verifying that the applicant does not
have multiple connections from different agencies.
"Customers can submit applications for a new connection to a local distributor with valid documents but it will only be processed and approved by oil companies after verification to ensure de-duplications," a senior oil ministry official said. The entire process should take a week to 10 days, the official added. Customers can also directly apply online through companies' websites.
Earlier, gas distributors were issued new connections after verifying customers' details. But that encouraged users to take multiple connections by approaching different agencies, which did not have tools to check duplication, the official said.
Indian Oil, Hindustan petroleum and Bharat Petroleum have already found more than 1 crore duplicate connections and have blocked them. "In some case, one household has connections of all three agencies. They have been caught after online system is implemented," the official added. The three companies distribute cooking gas through Indane, HP Gas and Bharatgas brands.
Companies' executives say that they have issued notices to customers having duplicate connections and ask them to surrender them. "In case several connections are issued under the name and address of a particular consumer, he can submit a KYC, or know your customer, form that will verify his identity. Other connections taken fraudulently would be terminated," an IOC executive said.
The concept of KYC is borrowed from banks to verify identity of account holders.
Direct subsidy for cooking gas was proposed by Nandan Nilekani-led task force that suggested a three-phase action plan to cut burgeoning fuel subsidy. The first phase is to cap consumption of subsidised cylinders, followed by direct transfer of subsidies to bank accounts of users.
"Customers can submit applications for a new connection to a local distributor with valid documents but it will only be processed and approved by oil companies after verification to ensure de-duplications," a senior oil ministry official said. The entire process should take a week to 10 days, the official added. Customers can also directly apply online through companies' websites.
Earlier, gas distributors were issued new connections after verifying customers' details. But that encouraged users to take multiple connections by approaching different agencies, which did not have tools to check duplication, the official said.
Indian Oil, Hindustan petroleum and Bharat Petroleum have already found more than 1 crore duplicate connections and have blocked them. "In some case, one household has connections of all three agencies. They have been caught after online system is implemented," the official added. The three companies distribute cooking gas through Indane, HP Gas and Bharatgas brands.
Companies' executives say that they have issued notices to customers having duplicate connections and ask them to surrender them. "In case several connections are issued under the name and address of a particular consumer, he can submit a KYC, or know your customer, form that will verify his identity. Other connections taken fraudulently would be terminated," an IOC executive said.
The concept of KYC is borrowed from banks to verify identity of account holders.
Direct subsidy for cooking gas was proposed by Nandan Nilekani-led task force that suggested a three-phase action plan to cut burgeoning fuel subsidy. The first phase is to cap consumption of subsidised cylinders, followed by direct transfer of subsidies to bank accounts of users.
Source : The Economic Times, Sept 5, 2012
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