Centre ensuring steady flow of cooking gas during turbulent times: Nirmala Sitharaman

Replying to a debate in Rajya Sabha on the Appropriation Bill, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday that the Government is ensuring steady availability of cooking gas even amid turbulent times. She said domestic production of LPG is also being stepped up to address any situation.

The Minister maintained that country has enough fertiliser stocks for Kharif crops and global bidding to procure nutrients for the next Rabi season will start soon. “The West Asia crisis has come up with a new challenge, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stress on self-reliance and increasing production to meet India’s basic demands has helped the country,” she said.

“Overwhelmingly, 90% of the 65% LPG imports come through the Strait of Hormuz. As a result, there was speculation about whether we would get it or not. There are enough reports on how we are ensuring a steady flow during these turbulent times,” she said adding that the country has been building up its LPG capacities and even “at this time the way we have ramped up domestic capacity in LPG, is also coming of help”.

She said the Centre had directed oil refineries and petrochemical complexes to maximise LPG production by diverting propane, butane, propylene and butane streams to the LPG pool. “As a result, domestically also, we are ramping up capacities to supply LPG, and domestic LPG production is going up about 25%,” Ms. Sitharaman and added that the entire output of this ramped-up capacity is going to domestic consumers.

“So to ensure that households don’t suffer, not only are there steady streams of shipping lines coming in, but domestically we have also ramped up the capacity for production of the LPG, diverting from other hydrocarbon material to LPG production. As a result, domestic supplies will be adequately streamlined, and supplies will remain steady,” Ms. Sitharaman said.