The taxpayers will have to pay full market rate for LPG gas cylinder now. According to the report, the Planning Commission has given suggestion to oil companies to charge the rate without subsidy from households who are taxpayers.

As for example, if you are a taxpayer in Delhi you will have to pay Rs 471.75 instead of Rs 294.75 for a LPG cylinder. The suggestion of planning commission would cost Rs 177 per LPG cylinder per household.

The government has been trying to initiate some steps to ease the mounting subsidy burden from the exchequer since long. The idea to take full market rate from taxpayers is one of the different ideas pending in the government. At the same time, there is a great burden from the common people to keep LPG price low.

The plan may be implemented from the month of June this year as the government has the list of taxpayers and cooking gas consumers both.

However, the oil ministry officials, responsible to put the plan into practice, have said that they are unconvinced on this idea that would draw a line among the gas consumers to separate them as ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. According to them, it will be a step of political suicide for the party who would take this decision.

The panel said further that majority of the gas connections are in the name of housewives, most of whom are non I-T payers.

Earlier, the TOI had reported that the government is thinking to introduce smart cards to make it sure that the subsidy reaches the deserving people. The card was planned to have the details such as consumer’s name, address and family size as well as the nature of kitchen fuel in their household.

Further, according to the suggestion, when taxpayers will be removed from the list, remaining consumers would get only eight cylinders a year at subsidised rates. It won’t matter what is the family size and the family will have to pay the market rate to take more cylinder other than eight.

Congress, currently facing the criticism for not controlling the rising prices of essential commodities, would face difficulty within the party to take any decision on this matter.

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