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At present, the fuel retailers allow their customers to choose the LPG distributor for online transfer of the connection to another distributor serving in the same area of their own network and for cylinder refills.
A Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) connection user of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd may soon be able to seamlessly switch to Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), or vice-versa, just like switching mobile phone numbers, according to a report in Mint. By jointly developing a software, the three retailers are bringing their entire LPG business data on the same platform. The government is also working on the same to bring the household gas supply business.
A tender has been invited to make the portability process seamless between OMCs. It is expected to be implemented in the current financial year, the publication said.
Current process is tedious
At present, the fuel retailers allow their customers to choose the LPG distributor for online transfer of the connection to another distributor serving in the same area of their own network and for cylinder refills. Though the portability within a fuel retailer’s network is online and seamless, that’s not the case if one needs to switch to another provider.
The process involves physical surrender of the connection first and then going for a connection with the distributor of another retailer for LPG connection. This at times becomes tedious and time consuming.
On June 24 2019, the oil ministry said in a statement that in case of a inter-company connection transfer, both parent and destination distributor get advanced intimation about consumer’s transfer request with tracking options for customers. However, for surrendering of LPG equipment the customer needs to visit the parent distributorship as accounting of equipment and security deposit is involved.
The LPG connection portability comes on the back of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana programme, that aims to provide free gas connections to poor families, thereby extending the country’s LPG coverage to 99.5% on 1st January this year from 61.9% as of 1st April 2016. As of 1st of July, India has 291.1 million LPG customers.