BPCL expects LPG demand to rise up to 9% this fiscal

State-run fuel retailer Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) expects cooking gas demand to grow by 6-9% this fiscal on the back of lower prices and increasing focus on rural reach.

"We expect cooking gas demand to grow by six to nine per cent this fiscal as we focus more on reaching out to the under-served markets and the rural areas. This is because of the steep fall in prices," BPCL Chairman and Managing Director S Varadarajan told reporters on the sidelines of an industry function here recently.

He said the industry added 50 lakh new LPG customers in the rural areas last fiscal, but did not say how much he expects this to be this year.

On the DBTL scheme for LPG, he said the industry booked 10-12% savings since the introduction of the direct cash transfer scheme last year.

When asked whether the company will be able meet the LPG demand and how much it will be importing, he did not answer directly.

Last fiscal the country imported 8.33 million tone of LPG while the total consumption was 18.2 mt. In the previous fiscal, imports stood at 6.61 mt and total demand at 16.29 mt.

Varadarajan said since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call on the rich to give up subsidy on cooking gas, as many as 6.5 lakh households out of the 150 million total have stopped availing of the rebate leading to a saving of around Rs 300 crore in subsidies, he added.

The direct benefit transfer scheme for LPG was launched on November 15, 2014, and more than 130 million consumers across 676 districts are covered under the scheme.