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The All India LPG Distributors Federation (Karnataka Circle) on Saturday said it would not deliver cylinders to houses from October 1 if a foolproof delivery mechanism was not evolved.

The Federation, citing the difficulties it faced, said keeping track of consumers and cylinders in the multiple rate policy had become tough after the Union Government restricted the supply to six domestic subsidised cylinders to each household in a year.

Sathyan N, secretary to the Karnataka Circle of the Federation, said the decision on the six-cylinder cap had been made hastily without proper consultations with them. “The subsidy scheme is already riddled with many deficiencies and the introduction of ‘five’ price mechanisms varying from domestic to commercial categories and the menace of diversion have remained unsolved. We will now be required to maintain records for five categories of pricing, stock in the godown and it will lead to unwarranted operational issues,” he said.

Radhakrishna, president of the Karnataka Circle of the Federation, said that in the present system of obtaining the signature of a customer on the duplicate cash memo, after the cylinder delivery, there was no proof of delivery if the customer refuses to acknowledge or if the signature is not authenticated, like a cheque. “IT features like binary or fingerprint need to be introduced,” he said.

The Federation has suggested single pricing for all categories of 14.2-kg domestic customers. The subsidy amount due to each customer can be transferred electronically to his/her bank account. “If the Union and state governments and the oil companies fail to provide an answer to our problems soon, it would be difficult for us to continue the home delivery service from October 1,” they said.

3 subsidised cylinders

With the government restricting subsidised LPG cylinders to only six a year per household, the All India LPG Distributors Federation (Karnataka Circle) said on Saturday that consumers were now eligible to only three subsidised cylinders for this financial year. They will only get non-subsidised cylinder, if they want more.

“The financial year period has been fixed from September 14, 2012, up to March 31, 2012,” said Sathyan N, the Federation’s State Circle secretary. He clarified that the three cylinder rule will apply to all domestic customers, irrespective of the number of cylinders they have procured before September 14, 2012. “For example, even if a consumer has already procured more than six subsidised domestic cylinders, or has procured only one cylinder, it does not matter. Domestic customers will only get three more cylinders effective from September 14, 2012,” he said.

Members of the Federation also said that as per the government and OMC rules, the proof of delivery is to be recorded by the delivery men and the signature of the customer obtained in the DGCC book, popularly known as the blue book. “We request all domestic customers to produce the blue book at the time of cylinder delivery. If they don’t, they won’t get the cylinder. Customers who don’t have a blue book, can obtain one from their agent by paying Rs 45,” said Lingaraju, senior vice president, Karnataka Circle of the Federation.