By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Monday said that release of LPG connections and appointment of LPG distributorships are continuous process. As on 01.11.2019, there are 27.44 crore LPG customers in the country which cover 96.6% households. LPG distributors are under instruction to immediately register any request for new LPG connection and Oil Marketing Companies(OMCs) endeavour to release the same within 7 working days. As on 01.11.2019, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have 24204 LPG distributors across the country. During the last 5 years i.e. from 2014-15 to 2018-19, OMCs have commissioned more than 9 thousand LPG distributorships to make LPG easily available and accessible to the customers.
The Union Minister said the Oil PSUs take up works in districts after approval from Competent Authority. Apart from that, as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Oil PSUs have been undertaking CSR interventions around their work centres. Oil PSUs have been earmarking 2% of their Profits for CSR projects. CSR activities are undertaken under the heads identified under Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013 with special focus on Health (Nutrition, Sanitation, and Drinking Water), Education, Skill Development, Rural Development, Women Empowerment, Environment Centric Initiatives and Care for the Elderly & Differently-abled persons.The project / activities wise details of the funds allocated and spent on the development and other works in various districts of the country including in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and on water recharge and water harvesting in Gujarat during the last 3 years are available on the respective websites of the Oil PSUs.
In order to encourage production of biodiesel from Used Cooking Oil (UCO), Oil Marketing Companies have floated Expression of Interest on 10.08.2019, for supply of biodiesel produced from UCO at 100 locations across the country. The ex-factory UCO based biodiesel price has been fixed for three years.
The price for the first year has been fixed atRs 51/litre, for the second year at Rs 52.7/litre and for the third year at Rs 54.5/litre. GST and transportation shall be payable in addition to this price. This has been extended on 10.10.2019 to 200 locations.Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has informed that the Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) sticker and phone app were launched on 10.08.2019, on the occasion of World Biofuel Day. The sticker is for display by RUCO compliant Food Business Operators (FBOs) and Food Service establishments outside their premises for creating awareness and generating demand, Pradhan in a written reply in the Lok Sabha said.
