‘Confusion’ over DBT compliance

The first two days of 2015 saw consumers queuing up at outlets. LPG dealers stressed they are reaching out to consumers. Consumers fretted about staff at dealers’ offices not being skilled enough to cater to them, and said it led to a lot of confusion.

The scheme is being implemented from New Year. The oil and petroleum ministry insisted on covering at least 50 per cent consumers for the scheme by linking details with bank accounts by New Year, but Pune district has been able to link only 43.64 per cent so far.

DBTL is aimed at streamlining LPG subsidy. Consumer would buy a cylinder at market price (excluding VAT) and the difference between subsidised price and market price will be transferred to his/her bank account.

The process was initiated on January 1. The government has allowed a three-month “grace period” and two-month parking period (when the amount will be with the oil company) for the process to kick off. While consumers will get 12 cylinders at subsidised rate till March, consumers will have to pay market price of Rs 740.50 paise after that.

“The agencies have been given targets to achieve nearly 70-80 per cent by January end and we are reaching out to consumers to fill forms by passing them on through delivery boys, or though SMSes. We urge the citizens not to wait till March to register as it would mean more chaos,” said Usha Poonawalla, state spokesperson of the LPG dealers association.

“Those who register during this period and their bank accounts have been linked, will get the cylinder at market rate and the subsidy will be paid in their bank accounts,” she added.

The difference between the market rate and subsidised rate will be transferred to the consumers’ account and for that the consumers have to be cash transfer compliant (CTC) according to the scheme, she adds. The consumers have to get a photocopy of the gas booklet, a crossed cheque mentioning IFSC code of the bank, or the passbook.

Most gas agency outlets saw a rush for forms. The inability of the staff in adeptly handling the rush is reported to be the reason for the chaos. S Rao, a pensioner, waited in a long queue to get a form and fill it. That was a week ago. He is yet to receive confirmation about CTC. “We call up the agency every day. The staff there are very rude,’’ he says.

Poonawalla says that while some consumers came in to fill the forms there were others who hardly bothered and had to be pushed.

A dealer had even told his consumers that they would have to fill in details once booking for the cylinder is done. “We even tell them if they do not fill the form they would have to pay market price and if they do not have the account linked they would have to forego subsidy,” says a dealer. Consumers say that as dealers have to meet targets they are drawing their own rules. “This adds to the chaos,” said another dealer.

Dealers have been provided with a software for keying in details, and the customer is supposed to be intimated about the linkage. At many outlets facing staff crunch, keying in details is very slow. Some consumers complain that LPG outlets have staff who even give wrong forms and after they fill them, it is pointed out that they have filled the wrong forms.

Officials from the district supply office says there is bound to be some chaos. “Once the scheme is rolled out people will understand it. Along with DBTL linkage, the administration is launching Aadhaar linkage which will take up DBTL coverage to 76 per cent,” said the official.

Consumers feel that agencies should rope in more staff. “There is limited staff and daily bookings. The additional work is burdening staff. They hardly have time and that is the reason we are asking consumers to finish the process this month,” said an official.

Pune district has 167 dealers catering to 25 lakh consumers of three oil companies, HPCL, IOCL and BPCL. Of these, 43.64 per cent consumers have their accounts seeded, which means around 10.83 lakh consumers.

There are 35 dealers for IOCL, 65 for BPCL and 67 for HPCL. According to DBTL coordinator Nikunjkumar Shukla, the district averaged 43.64 per cent and HPCL touched 44.82 per cent, BPCL 44.46 per cent and IOCL 31.75 per cent.

“We are looking at increasing linkage this month and have asked dealers to reach out to consumers ahead of the March deadline,” he said. Of the total, bank-Aadhaar seeding was 36.45 per cent and bank seeding alone was 7.19 per cent, according to details.