Express News Service By

CHENNAI: Despite a concerted campaign by the Union Government for the past few months urging the well-off to give up their LPG subsidy, less than 0.3 per cent of consumers in Tamil Nadu have opted out of subsidy, official statistics reveal.

The State has a total of 1.54 crore LPG connections, of which less than 50,000 have given up their subisdy. According to statistics available on the websites of the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), 23,116 Indane consumers, 8,202 Hindustan Petroleum Gas (HP Gas) consumers and around 15,000 BharatGas consumers have given up the subsidy.

Currently, a non-subsidised 14.2 kg LPG cylinder costs Rs 620, while a subsidy of Rs 215 is given to consumers per cylinder, which is debited to their bank accounts.

Gas agency proprietors in Chennai attributed this not to the thriftiness of the well-off, but to their sheer laziness. “There are many well-intentioned people who can afford to let go of Rs 200 per cylinder. Even if they consume eight cylinders in a year, it’s a mere Rs 1,600. It is peanuts for them, but they just don’t want to take the effort to come to the agency and submit the forms,” an agency owner in Adyar said.

As of now, this campaign has resulted in a total annual savings of Rs 187.75 crore for Indane, Rs 91.6 crore for Bharat Gas and Rs 100 crore for HP Gas, statistics show.

The Union Petroleum Ministry has also set up a separate website www.giveitup.in, which guides all those consumers who might want to opt out of their LPG subsidy.