LPG subsidy: Should not end up in smoke

When he announced the Ujjwala Yojana in 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a vow to end the era of smoke-filled kitchens where the women folk of the country spend a large part of their lives taking care of all the members of the family but end up running their own health, courtesy the firewood and coal that are used as the principal smoke-emitting fuels. The scheme has so far introduced LPG in 8 crore families so far and another 1 crore families have been targeted in the second edition of the scheme that is currently underway.

While the benefit to the beneficiary families have been obvious, there has been a change in the policy of the government that has quietly phased out the subsidy that was available on all domestic cylinders. As a result, the cylinders containing 14.2-kg LPG which were priced just above Rs 400 in 2014 costs about Rs 900 now. Their price was about Rs 620 in September last year, which means the kitchen fuel has recorded a nearly 45% price rise in a year. Needless to say, this is beyond what poor families can afford and there are reports that many of them – the original targets of the Ujjwala Yojana mission – are going back to firewood and coal to cook that are again enveloping the room and the lungs of the women folk in smoke.

While a blanket subsidy makes no sense at all, there is a strong case for redesigning the LPG subsidy targeting the bottom-of-the-pyramid segment. Various estimates put the saving the government has made by phasing out LPG subsidy is more than Rs 20,000 crore. But the subsidy needs to be reintroduced in a limited manner. With the financial inclusion programme moving ahead full steam, it is now easy to transfer the subsidy to this section. With buoyancy in revenue, the government should not leave the people deserving subsidies in the lurch. Our women do not deserve the tyranny of smoke-filled kitchens.