Steps Taken To Encourage Use Of Digital Payment At Petrol Stations: Minister 

New Delhi: Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Monday that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has taken the following steps/actions to encourage consumers for use of digital payment methods at various petrol pumps in the country to promote cashless transactions.

• 0.75 % discount is being given to consumer on the purchase of fuel at the Petrol Pumps of the Oil Marketing Companies. The discount is being given in the form of cash back in the bank account of the consumers.
• Consumer awareness campaigns are being organized at petrol/CNG outlets across the country.
• Dealers’ meetings have been conducted at field level.
• Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoP&NG) through OMCs is monitoring the provision of digital payment methods at Retail Outlets (ROs)/LPG Distributorships on daily basis. There has been a significant expansion of digital payment infrastructure at retail outlets.
• A large number of ROs are now having the POS terminals and E-wallet payment facilities. Various E-wallet service providers have also been asked to set up the counters at the outlets to create customer awareness.
• Standard printed materials such as Standees, Leaflets etc. have been developed in Hindi, English & Regional Language and displayed prominently at ROs/LPG distributorships.

1.05 Crore LPG Consumers Have Voluntarily Given Up LPG Subsidy

The Minister of State also informed the Lok Sabha that implementation of PAHAL has resulted in identification of 3.34 crore and 3.56 crore ghost/fake/duplicate accounts during Financial Year 2014-15 and 2015-16 respectively.

The total subsidy under recovery on domestic LPG during the financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16 was Rs. 40,569 crore and Rs 16074 crore, respectively. Lower subsidy during the last year is due to various factors, including introduction of direct transfer of subsidies into the accounts of consumers (PAHAL Scheme) and fall in international crude oil prices.

As on 29th January, 1,05,46,090 LPG consumers have voluntarily surrendered their LPG subsidy. Government has also issued a circular stating that the benefit of the LPG subsidy will not be admissible for the LPG consumers, if the consumer or his wife/her spouse had taxable income of Rs. 10 lakh and above during the previous financial year computed as per the income Tax Act 1961.