New Delhi: The Union government on Wednesday announced a one-time grant of Rs 22,000 crore to three state-owned fuel companies – Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.
Union Minister Anurag Thakur said the grant will help the companies to cover the losses they had incurred on selling liquefied petroleum gas to consumers at below cost from June 2020 to June 2022.
The international prices of LPG increased by 300 percent between June 2020 to June 2022, media reported, citing an official statement.
“However, to insulate consumers from fluctuations in international LPG prices, the cost increase was not fully passed on to consumers of domestic LPG,” the statement said.
“Accordingly, domestic LPG prices have risen by only 72% during this period…this led to significant losses for the three firms.”
“This decision will help the PSU OMCs to continue their commitment to the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan, ensuring unhindered domestic LPG supplies and also supporting the procurement of Make in India products,” Thakur said.
The Cabinet also approved a productivity-linked bonus of Rs 1,832 crore for 11.27 lakh employees of Indian Railways. “It will be a bonus of 78 days and Rs 17,951 will be its maximum limit,” he said.
The Cabinet meeting was held earlier today at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence, 7 Lok Kalyan Marg.
The amendment to the multi-state cooperative societies law to make it more transparent was also given a green light by the Union Cabinet.
“Union Cabinet has approved the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022 which seeks to amend the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002. It will incorporate the provisions of the 97th Constitutional Amendment,” Thakur said.
(Vinayak)