Lok Sabha Question No. 1212 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-07-25
Subject: Consumer Empowering Initiatives
Ministry: PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS
Asked by: R. PARTHIPAN

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION  No. 1212 TO BE ANSWERED ON 25.07.2016

## CONSUMER EMPOWERING INITIATIVES

1212.  SHRI R. PARTHIPAN: पेट्रोलियम और प्राक ृ लिक गैस मंत्री

Will the Minister of PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has launched/proposes to launch any new consumer empowering initiatives and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has fixed any target in this regard;
- (c) if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken to achieve them; and
- (d) the other measures/ initiatives planned/being taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## पेट्रोलियम और प्राक ृ लिक गैस मंत्रािय में राज्य मंत्री ( स्विंत्र प्रभार ) ( श्री धमेन्द्र प्रधान )

## MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) IN THE MINISTRY OF PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)

(a) to (d):  Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has already launched various consumer  empowering  initiatives,  the  details  of  which  have  been  given  in  the statement as Annexure.

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## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  to  (d)  OF  THE  LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1212  FOR 25.07.2016 RAISED BY SHRI R. PARTHIPAN, MP REGARDING 'CONSUMER EMPOWERING INITIATIVES'.

The  Ministry  of  Petroleum  &  Natural  Gas  has  launched  following  consumer empowering initiatives:

## (i) Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)

Government has approved Rs. 8000 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) for release of 5 crore deposit free new LPG connections to Women of BPL families over three years, i.e. FY 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. The scheme will provide an initial cost of Rs. 1600/- for providing LPG connection to poor households in  the  name  of  woman  of  the  household.  The  Prime  Minister  has  launched  the scheme on 01.05.2016 at Balia.

## (ii) MyLPG.in

It provides online information of sales and distribution of LPG cylinder delivery data to LPG Consumers on a near real time basis. Various features such as LPG usage, LPG booking status, LPG refill history, request for surrender of connection, subsidy availed  and  transferred,  rating  of  distributors  by  cylinder  delivery  time,  rating  the distributor on the five perceived parameters and Aadhaar Linking Status have been provided for use of consumers.

## (iii) Rating of Distributors Based on Delivery Performance.

Each distributor is now being rated from 5 stars to 1 star (***** to *) based on his delivery  performance.  The  aim  is  to  measure,  increase  and  improve  the  delivery performance of each distributor. Rating of distributor helps a consumer in deciding the change of distributor. It also motivates distributors to improve delivery times so as to retain consumers and acts as a monitoring mechanism for OMC sales officers to make efforts to improve the performance of low rating distributors.

## (iv) SMS/IVRS

The  SMS/IVR  System  is  a  customer  oriented  initiative,  launched  to  facilitate  a genuine customer for making a refill booking round the clock, seven days a week (24 X 7), and also circumvents the problems sometimes earlier faced by customers of finding  Distributor's  telephone  lines  busy  (especially  during  rush  hours,  with  many customers  trying  to  contact  the  distributor  at  the  same  time).  In  this  system,  a Consumer  can  book  gas  not only from his/her (up to) personal registered telephone/mobile  numbers,  but  also  from  an  un-registered  telephone  number.

However, LPG consumers, who do not have a landline/mobile number, can, continue to visit the distributorship for booking their refills.

## (v) E-SV (Sahaj)

OMCs launched a facility by the name 'e-SV' on pilot basis in May 2015. 'e-SV' is the electronic  subscription  voucher  emailed  to  the  customer  upon  release  of  LPG connection  online.  Subscription  Voucher  indicates  the  number  of  cylinders  and pressure regulators loaned to the customer against the security deposit. The facility enables the customers to register, make payment online for availing LPG connection at his/her doorstep without visiting the LPG distributorship. The Sahaj initiative was formally  launched  by  the  Hon'ble  Minister  of  State  (I/C),  PNG  in  12  cities  on 30.08.15. Online new LPG connection is released after intercompany de-duplication in  all  districts  where  NIC  has  extended  the  facility.  For  the  remaining  districts, connections  will  be  released  as  per  the  existing  process  of  Intra  Company  deduplication till NIC extends similar facility to the remaining districts.

## (vi) Emergency Helpline No. `1906'

This LPG Emergency multilingual Helpline was dedicated to the nation on 1.1.2016 by  the  Hon'ble  Minister  of  PNG.  This  facility  is  available  24*7  operations  with  2 shifts  12  hours  each  for  attending  emergency  LPG  leakage  complaints.   The  call center is having a web based application for logging and viewing   monitoring the call logs & updation of the contact details of the mechanic & field officers.

## (vii) Online Payment

As part of Digital India Initiatives, OMCs have launched the facility for Online New connections  (SAHAJ),  in  which  customer  is  also  having  an  option  for  making  the online  payments  through  Net  banking  &  credit/debit  card  for  release  of  new  LPG connections.  By  this  facility  customer  can  now  book  &  pay  online  for  the  refills booked by Net-banking/debit/credit cards.

## (viii) Online Portal to Piped Natural Gas (PNG) customers

Major  City  Gas  Distribution  Companies    such  as  Indraprastha  Gas  Limited  (IGL), Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) etc. have made an interactive online portal to PNG customers for making online bill payments, new customer registration and suitable grievance redressal mechanism. In addition, all CGD entities provide the price breakup of CNG/PNG, to its customers.

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