Savings benefit rural India, says BPCL chairman.

More than 6.5 lakh people nationwide have surrendered their subsidy for gas cylinders after the Union government launched its “Give it Up” campaign, a top petroleum company official said here on Thursday.

At the national council meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry, S. Varadarajan, chairman, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd., said “This has led to Rs. 300 crore in savings, but the government, rather than retaining the money, is transferring the subsidised cylinders to rural India where people’s health suffers because of the burning of wood or coal for cooking. We are requesting more people to surrender the subsidies, if you can, so that the weaker section can benefit.”

Mr. Varadarajan said the PAHAL scheme for direct benefit transfers benefited close to 130 million households which received the gas subsidy in their bank accounts in 100 days.

“Within four months, the scheme had 86 per cent of customer population covered, totalling 135 million households. The long-term vision under PAHAL is to provide the benefit of the received subsidy to 130 million rural households which do not have access to LPG, a cleaner medium for cooking,” he said.

On Thursday, CII members pledged to give up their LPG subsidies and convince their employees and suppliers to do so.