M. Veerappa Moily, the Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas has indicated that the distributors will get special incentives under the Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG Subsidy (DBTL) scheme.

Moily said, “This special incentive for distributors is for smooth and effective roll-out across the country. The incentive is also for speedy implementation of the scheme. The Ministry is also planning to expand and popularise the use of domestic LPG to cover 75 per cent of the population in the next three years.”

According to the latest estimates there are about 12,600 distributors in the country that supply LPG to over 14 crore households covering 60 per cent of the country’s population. The minister is now working on a scheme to offer incentives to distributors in order to ensure smooth implementation of the scheme. Moily said that the details of the scheme will be determined in the coming months.

He also asked the State Governments in the country to offer support to the Oil Ministry for smooth implementation of the subsidy scheme, which is claimed to be capable of saving between Rs 10,000-11,000 crore per year. Moily pointed out that importance of liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas as clean fuels compared to fossils and asked state government to encourage use of gas in public transport and make Indian households kerosene free.