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India’s LPG Customer Base Shrinks Amid Supply Disruptions and Verification

India had been adding LPG customers for many years.

Between April and August, about 6.2 million households stopped being counted as active LPG customers.

Supplies were disrupted because conflict affected imports from the Gulf region.

Oil companies also stopped issuing some new connections and checked existing customer accounts.

These checks looked for inactive users, duplicate family connections and households using piped natural gas.

The government is encouraging some households to switch from LPG to piped natural gas when it is available.

The Ujjwala cooking-gas program also lost about 600,000 active beneficiaries.

Southern India saw the biggest fall in LPG customers.

Key facts

Active LPG customers: 327.7 million at the beginning of September, down from 333.9 million at the beginning of April.
Total decline: Approximately 6.2 million households, or roughly 1% during the current financial year.
Import exposure: The Gulf region accounted for around 90% of India’s LPG imports before the conflict.
Ujjwala beneficiaries: Active beneficiaries declined by about 600,000 to approximately 105.7 million.
PNG customers: The piped natural gas customer base reached around 17.5 million after nearly 600,000 additions through July.
Largest regional decline: Southern India lost approximately 2.63 million LPG customers.
Largest regional customer base: Northern India had around 99.3 million LPG customers at the beginning of September.

thehansindia.com · 1 hr ago