LPG consumers may not be able to refill their cylinders next time if they do not surrender the the extra connections. "Extra connections will be blocked and customers will not be able to get their refills till they surrender multiple connections," an official of Indian Oil said here. Public sector oil marketing companies under the nationwide 'One Household and One LPG Connection' campaign are asking the customers to surrender their extra or multiple connections till September 15,otherwise they will be liable to face permanent disconnection and penal action under the Essential Commodities Act. Oil companies including Indian Oil,BPCL and HPCL are identifying customers who have multiple domestic LPG connections either in their names with same address or in some others' name with same address. "Letters are being sent to customers,asking them to surrender their extra connections till September 15," the Indian Oil official said. Notably,the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Regulation of Supply & Distribution) Order,2000 as amended on September 10,2009 issued under Essential Commodities Act,1955 permits only one LPG gas connection in one household. In Punjab and Chandigarh,oil companies have already blocked about 5 lakh and 1.08 lakh connections,respectively,which were multiple ones at the same address and not refilled for the last six months or more. Interestingly,In Punjab,there are 59 lakh registered LPG connections against 54 lakh households while in Chandigarh,there are 3.8 lakh cooking gas connections against 2.35 lakh households. Identifying customers having multiple connections will not be much of a problem for oil companies as they have computerised consumers' database which can easily lead to discovery of multiple connections,official asserted. Oil companies are expected to face problems to block connections where they are in different names but with same address and this exercise will be conducted after September 15. "The onus will be on customer to prove that his family was different household from the other one which also has the gas connection at same address. It can be done by showing rent receipt or lease agreement," the Indian Oil official said. However,the problem will arise where parents and their married sons are living separately at different floors,with separate connections,but with the same housing address,he added. Customers with multiple connections will have to approach their LPG distributors and submit his latest proof of identity and proof of address documents and fill up the Know Your Customer (KYC) form for reactivation. Oil companies have also trained a few people to collect details about the customers profile by visiting their houses and help people especially elderly ones to fill up KYC forms.
