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Since December last year the price of a domestic LPG cylinder was increased six times and slashed only once

The sales of LPG cylinders went down almost 10% in March in Bengal, according to dealers. They attributed the dip in sales to rising prices.

The trend of falling sales was not confined to March only, they added.

Bijon Behari Biswas, General Secretary of West Bengal Indane Distributors Association, said sales witnessed a dip in January and February too.

The price of LPG cylinders rose from Rs 585 in May 2020 to Rs 845– a rise of almost 44% in 10 months.

“We haven’t witnessed such dip in sales in the past few decades. The rocketing price of cylinders is mainly the reason for lower consumption by households,” said Biswas.

He added that demand was slow since December when the dip was about 1.5%. In January and February, the decline in sales was about 2.5% and 5%. But in March it set new lows.

That the slowdown in demand was mainly attributable to the rising prices was apparent from the timing of the price hikes. The price of a cylinder was hiked by Rs 25 on February 4 (Rs 720.50 to 745.50), Rs 50 on February 15 (Rs 795.50) and again by another Rs 50 on March 1 (Rs 845.50).

Incidentally, the price of a cylinder was reduced by Rs 10 on April 1 that the government attributed to declining crude prices.

According to data by Indian Oil, the largest oil marketing company in the country, more than 2 crore cylinders are booked every month in Bengal. The figure is 14.5 lakh for the city of Kolkata.

The total number of LPG cylinders in the state is about 2.27 crore, out of which 1.31 crore connections are given by Indian Oil. Of the 14.5 lakh domestic connections in Kolkata, Indian Oil accounts for 8.9 lakh.

The total number of LPG connections in the country is 28.14 crore.