On Saturday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Centre would give a subsidy of Rs 200 per gas cylinder (up to 12 cylinders) to over 9 crore beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana this year.
.
The finance minister said that the move will have a revenue implication of around Rs 6100 crore a year.
.
Earlier this week, cooking gas LPG prices witnessed a jump of Rs 3.50 for the second time in a month. The increase took the LPG cylinder prices across the country over the Rs 1,000-mark. A 14.2 kg domestic LPG cylinder in Delhi and Mumbai costs Rs 1,003, Rs 1,029 in Kolkata and Rs 1,018.5 in Chennai.
.
FM Sitharaman made a slew of announcements for the welfare of the poor on Saturday. She said, “We are committed to ensuring that prices of essential items are kept under control.” Further, the minister said that despite the challenging international situation, we’ve ensured that there are no shortages/scarcity of essential goods. Even a few developed countries couldn’t escape some shortages/disruptions.
.
“Our government is devoted to the welfare of the poor. We’ve taken a number of steps to help the poor and middle class. As a result, the average inflation during our tenure has remained lower than during previous governments,” Sitharaman stated in a series of tweets.
.
Meanwhile, PM Narendra Modi had on August 10, 2021, launched Ujjwala 2.0 through video conferencing by handing over liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections at Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba. In Ujjwala 2.0 scheme, migrant workers can also get LPG connections through self-declaration as “proof of address”. Migrants will not be required to submit ration cards or address proof. A self-declaration for both ‘family declaration’ and a ‘proof of address will suffice.
Along with a deposit-free LPG connection, Ujjwala 2.0 is aimed at providing the first refill and hotplate free of cost to the beneficiaries.
The Ujjwala 1.0 scheme was launched in 2016 and under this, a target was set to provide LPG connections to five crore women members of below poverty line (BPL) households. Subsequently, the scheme was expanded in April 2018 to include women beneficiaries from seven more categories (SC/ST, PMAY, AAY, Most backward classes, tea garden, forest dwellers, Islands).
The target was also revised to eight crores LPG connections, which was reached in August 2019, seven months ahead of the target date.