Cooking gas price hiked by Rs 50 per cylinder for Ujjwala, general consumers

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday increased the price of LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder.

Union petroleum minister Hardeep Puri said that the price of cylinder will go from Rs 500 to Rs 550 for Ujwalla scheme beneficiaries and Rs 803 to Rs 853 for general users.

"The price per cylinder of LPG will increase by Rs 50. From 500, it will go up to 550 (for PMUY beneficiaries) and for others it will go up from Rs 803 to Rs 853. This is a step which we will review as we go along. We review these every 2-3 weeks," Puri said.

"Therefore, the excise duty that you have seen increase is not to go on to the consumer on petrol and diesel. That excise increase is intended to compensate the oil marketing companies for Rs 43,000 crore that they have incurred as a loss on the gas part of it," he added.

Puri said that the hike on LPG will be reviewed after every 15-30 days.

"This Rs 50 increase per cylinder will be for the Ujjwala beneficiary and overall for the non-Ujjwala beneficiary as well. This will be reviewed after every 15-30 days. In the case of petrol and diesel, if this trend remains, then the price is likely to be revised."

This comes after the government increased excise duty by Rs 2 each on petrol and diesel. According to a notification released by the revenue department of ministry of finance, the excise duty on petrol was increased to Rs 13 per litre and that on diesel to Rs 10.

However, the ministry of petroleum said that the retail prices will not be effected by the hike.