LPG Cylinder Price Cut A Respite: Over 3 in 10 Households Were Feeling the Pinch, Finds Survey

The Centre’s move of slashing the LPG cylinder prices for all by Rs 200 will bring the much-needed respite to citizens, as a LocalCircles survey, over the past three months, found that over three in 10 households were feeling the pinch.

The price of unsubsidised 14.2 kg LPG cooking gas cylinders has been rising so far this year. In July, oil marketing companies increased the price of domestic LPG cylinders by Rs 50, following two hikes in May. The prices for non-subsidised domestic LPG cylinders currently stand at Rs 1,103 in Delhi. The price of cooking gas, whether for domestic or commercial use, varies according to state taxes.

Nearly 9.6 crore PM Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) beneficiaries, who get a Rs-200 subsidy on an LPG cylinder, will get a cylinder at Rs 700. Everyone else can now buy a cylinder for Rs 903.

7 in 10 HOUSEHOLDS KEEP LPG EXPENDITURE BELOW Rs 1,250, 10% LIMIT USE

LocalCircles attempted to understand how households have been coping with high cooking gas prices.

The first survey question was: “How much as a household are you currently incurring in cooking gas costs each month?”. Over 11,000 responded to this question, with 61% indicating that they have been limiting their expenses to between Rs 750-1250; another 15% indicated between Rs 1,250-2,500; further 3% spent between Rs 2,500-3,750 and yet another 3% over Rs 5,000.

In contrast, 10% of the respondents indicated that they spend less than Rs 750 per month as they rarely use the gas and 8% gave no clear indication.

The data is indicative of the fact that barring 21%, possibly high net worth individuals, seven in 10 households are striving to keep their cooking gas expenditure below Rs 1,250, of which 10% are keeping a tighter hold on their budget by limiting the use of cooking gas.

7% USING ALTERNATE WAYS OF COOKING, 14% CUT DISCRETIONARY SPENDING

The survey sought to find out from its registered members across the nation “what they were doing to cope with the high prices”.

Despite the impact on their household budgets, 64% of the respondents indicated that “they are just paying more by dipping into savings”. A total of 10,587 responded to this query, with 7% indicating that they are “using less cooking gas by using alternate ways of cooking”; 14% “have cut discretionary spending to pay for high cooking gas prices”; 7% have adopted both the option of alternate ways of cooking and cutting down discretionary spending; and 8% of respondents gave no clear response.

THE SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS

The survey received over 21,000 responses from household consumers located in 300 districts of India. A total of 67% respondents were men, while 33% respondents were women. At least 47% respondents were from tier 1, 33% from tier 2 and 19% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

The survey was conducted via LocalCircles platform and all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.

LocalCircles is a community social media platform that enables citizens and small businesses to escalate issues for policy and enforcement interventions and enables the Government to make policies that are citizen and small business centric. ​