No immediate plan to remove subsidy on LPG: Dharmendra Pradhan

The government does not have any immediate plan to remove subsidy on LPG, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said in Jamshedpur on Monday. "We do not have any plan to remove subsidy on LPG at the moment and it will continue," Pradhan told reporters to a question whether removal of subsidy on LPG for APL families was a possibility.

Pradhan's statement came after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday that the government was considering doing away with the cooking gas subsidy for the well-off. Pradhan said the issue should be debated as who should get the subsidy and who should not. "The people, particularly the affluent class of the country, must think whether subsidy should continue, if they want the country to develop," he said.

The government wanted to ensure proper and commercial utilisation of the natural resources to benefit the people of Jharkhand, he said adding the proposed Rs 10,000 crore Jagdishpur-Haldia pipeline project would benefit the state.The country now has 15000 km gas pipeline and 15,000 km more would be added in the next five years, Pradhan said.  Jharkhand has abundance of coal-based methane gas reserve, which would be utilised for power production as it was only alternative to coal-based power plant, the minister said.