South India has more than twice the number of Domestic LPG Connections as East India
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 2, 2015
According to the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, there are a total of 17.78 crore domestic LPG connections in the country making it 715 connections for every 1000 households. South India has the most number of connections which is more than twice the number of connections than East India though the population of South is lower than that of East. The OMCs have an under recovery of more than 2% of the annual Union budget every year while only 0.22% of the total consumers have voluntarily given up their subsidy.
Subsidized Domestic LPG is one of the largest chunks of subsidy extended by the Government to the citizens. From 2011-12 to 2013-14, the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) had an average under recovery of more than 38,500 crore rupees per annum. This is more than 2% of the annual Union Budget. The under recovery of OMCs on Domestic LPG has been increasing year after year. OMCs had an under recovery of 29997 crore rupees in 2011-12. This increased to 46458 crore rupees in 2013-14. This is a jump of more than 50% in 2 years.
Number of Domestic LPG Connections
As of February 2015, there are a total of 17.78 crore domestic LPG connections in the country. This is about 715 connections for every 1000 households. South India has the highest number of connections with 5.62 crore followed by North India (5.51 crore), West India (3.97 crore) & East India (2.68 crore).
What about individual States?
Only 6 states have more than a crore domestic LPG connections with Maharashtra topping the chart with 2.15 crore connections. It is worth noting that Maharashtra has more connections than Uttar Pradesh though its population is substantially less than that of UP. The other states with more than a crore connections include Andhra Pradesh (1.12 crore), Tamil Nadu (1.69 crore), West Bengal (1.03 crore) and Karnataka (1.05 crore). Three of the six states in this list are from South India. Lakshadweep with just 5000 connections has the least number of connections in the entire country.
Number of Domestic LPG Connections per 1000 Households
Absolute number of connections could sometimes be misleading because of the sheer variation in the population & number of households in various states. Hence it is important to compare normalized figures to understand the extent of LPG connections. The number of domestic LPG connections in each state has been normalized with the number of households in that state. This figure of number of connections per 1000 households could give important insights into the LPG coverage in the country.
As expected, South India leads the pack with 922 connections for every 1000 households while East India stands last with only 416 connections for every 1000 households. In other words, South India has more than twice the number of connections than East India for every 1000 households. The national average stands at 715 and only North & South India are over this average while the East & West are below the average.
What about States?
A total of 22 States/UTs have more domestic LPG connections for every 1000 households when compared to the National Average. 12 of them have more than 1000 connections for every 1000 households. Delhi leads the pack with 1782 connections for every 1000 households followed by Chandigarh (1663), Goa (1626), Mizoram (1323) & Punjab (1321) in the top five. Though Uttar Pradesh has the second highest number of connections in the country, it has only 634 connections for every 1000 households. Odisha is at the bottom with just 296 connections for every 1000 households followed by Jharkhand (324), Bihar (330), Chhattisgarh (339) & Meghalaya (344) in the bottom five.
Give up Subsidy
Ever since the BJP came to power in May 2014, the government has been requesting people who can afford to voluntarily to give up their subsidy. As on 1 May 2015 only 3.84 lakh people have give up their subsidy. This is a paltry 0.22% of the total domestic LPG Connections. For the government to save a substantial amount, a lot more citizens should come forward and give up their subsidy.
Sources:
Featured Image: By Krish Dulal (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons