By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: A bad news for Meghalaya LPG consumers. The customers will be supplied only six subsidised cylinders of 14.2 kgs for domestic use (household) during one financial year starting from April 1 every year.
Despite being a Congress-ruled State, Meghalaya is yet to have the luxuries of getting 9 subsidised like other Congress-ruled states of the country.
Even in neighbouring Assam, Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government has complied with the directive of the party high command to increase the cap on subsidised LPG from 6 to 9.
However, irrespective of the number of subsidised cooking gas cylinders you may have already consumed in the first six months of this financial year (April 1 to September 30), you are still entitled to three additional LPG cylinders for the remaining half of the year, or till March 31, 2013 . Informing this, East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner Sanjay Goyal in statement here on Monday said the rate for the subsidized LPG has been fixed at Rs.435/- per cylinder which is inclusive of carrying charge of Rs 17. However, in the absence of home delivery by the agencies Rs 17 is to be deducted from the above rate. For non-subsidised cylinders, he said there is no restriction. The retail selling price of such cylinders is likely to change every month subject to change in international price of the LPG. The present price of 14.2 kgs non-subsidized cylinder is Rs.959.50 per cylinder, which is more than double the cost of a subsidised cylinder. Effective from October 1, the government announced a scheme restricting the number of subsidised LPG cylinders to six a year. Because the scheme was made public in the middle of the financial year, consumers as well as dealers were confused over the number of subsidised cylinders that can be availed in the remaining half of the financial year.
