MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF
PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS (SHRI DINSHA PATEL)
(a) to (g) : A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (g) OF THE LOK
SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 338 BY SHRI CHENGARA SURENDRAN
AND SHRI TUKARAM GANGADHAR GADAKH TO BE ANSWERED ON 14TH
DECEMBER, 2006 REGARDING UNDER-WEIGHT LPG CYLINDERS.
(a) to (d) : Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have reported 193 cases
of supply of underweight cylinders to consumers by their LPG distributors during
the last three years, 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06, and April-October, 2006.All the
erring distributors have been penalized by OMCs in accordance with the provisions
of the Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDG). The State-wise details are at Annex.
Whenever OMCs receive complaints regarding the supply of underweight cylinders,
these are investigated and if the complaint is established, suitable action is taken
against the LPG distributor(s) concerned in accordance with the provisions of the
LPG Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDG). MDG provides for following action
against the distributor :-
Fine of Rs. 20,000 plus the price of LPG diverted at commercial rates for 1st offence.
Fine of Rs. 50,000 plus the price of LPG diverted at commercial rates for 2nd
offence, and
Termination of the distributorship for 3rd offence.
In addition to the action taken by OMCs, the Weight and Measures Departments of
the State/UT initiate legal action against those believed to be culpable.
(e) to (g) :No, Sir. However, OMCs have reported that their LPG distributors are
under instructions to ensure 100% weighment of cylinders at their godown before
delivery at the customers` premises. In a bid to enhance customer satisfaction
levels, distributors in selected markets have been advised by OMCs to provide a
spring balance to enable the customer to verify the correctness of the weight of LPG
in the cylinder. OMCs have introduced this scheme in major markets of the country.
The officials of OMCs carry out random checks at distributors godown, delivery
point, as well as en-route to ensure that no pilferage takes place.The distributors
of OMCs are under strict instructions to check the weight of cylinders at their
godowns before delivery, and only correct weight cylinders are to be delivered to
the customers. The distributors have also been instructed to ensure that the seals
are verified & shown to the customers at the time of delivery. In case any under-
weight cylinder is received by the customer, such cylinders are replaced with a
fresh refill cylinder without any charges by the OMCs.
At present, OMCs are using heat shrinkable preformed Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
seals, developed and recommended by the LPG Equipment Research Centre (LERC),
as a tamper evident sealing system for LPG cylinders with a view to supplying correct
weight of LPG to the consumers.PVC seals are difficult to duplicate, shrink at high
temperature and require special technical expertise to manufacture.
ANNEX
THE DETAILS OF COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY OMCs AGAINST THEIR LPG
DISTRIBUTORS DURING THE LAST THREE YEARS AND APRIL-OCTOBER, 2006.
Number of complaints States / UTs 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006
April-October, 2006- Andhra Pradesh 2 - -
- Arunachal Pradesh - - -
- Assam - - -
- Bihar 2 - 1
- Chhattisgarh - - -
- Delhi 7 17 11
- Goa - - -
- Gujarat 11 5 3
- Haryana 1 1 2
- Himachal Pradesh - 1 -
- Jammu & Kashmir - - -
- Jharkhand - - 1
- Karnataka 1 - -
- Kerala - - -
- Madhya Pradesh 4 - 1
- Maharashtra - - 1
- Manipur - - -
- Meghalaya - - -
- Mizoram - - -
- Nagaland - - -
- Orissa - - -
- Punjab 1 8 8
- Rajasthan 5 7 4
- Sikkim - - -
- Tamil Nadu - - -
- Tripura - - -
- Uttar Pradesh 20 25 21
- Uttaranchal 2 2 1
- West Bengal - - -
- Andaman & Nicobar - - -
- Chandigarh 4 1 4
- Dadra & Nagar - - - Haveli
- Daman Diu - - -
- Lakshadweep - - -
- Pondicherry - - -
- TOTAL 60 67 58
