LPG cylinders to cost ₹50 more for Ujjwala, general category customers from tomorrow 

The price of domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will increase by Rs 50 per cylinder, Union Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced on April 7. 

After the hike, a cylinder will cost Rs 550 as against Rs 500, and for non-Ujjwala prices will now cost Rs 853 per cylinder under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the Union minister said. 

“For PMUY beneficiaries, the price will rise from Rs 500 to Rs 550 per cylinder. For other consumers, it will increase from Rs 803 to Rs 853,” Puri said. 

Puri also said that the government will review LPG prices in India once every fortnight.  

Under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), the government seeks to supply clean cooking fuel, mainly LPG, to women belonging to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in rural areas of India.

The government has also hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre on April 7 and clarified that the retail prices won't be affected. 

Puri also clarified that the recent excise duty hike on petrol and diesel is not aimed at burdening consumers. Instead, it is intended to help offset a Rs 43,000 crore loss incurred by oil marketing companies due to subsidised gas prices. 

The development comes just days after oil marketing companies (OMCs) reduced the price of 19-kg commercial LPG cylinders by Rs 41. Following the revision, the revised retail price of commercial LPG in Delhi is Rs 1,762. This comes as a relief, as OMCs had increased commercial LPG cylinder prices by Rs 6 across major cities on March 1. 

Last month, the government raised by 4 per cent the price of natural gas produced from old legacy fields called APM - the key input used to make CNG and produce electricity and product fertiliser. The APM price has been hiked to $6.75 per million British thermal units effective April 1 from $6.50 per MMBtu, a notification of the Petroleum Planning and Analysis wing of the Oil Ministry said.