Switching LPG suppliers may get as easy as phone number portability; check details

Cooking gas consumers may soon be able to change their supplier without surrendering their existing connection, as the oil regulator has proposed a portability framework to give households more choice and improved service.

At present, LPG portability is limited to choosing another distributor of the same oil marketing company (OMC). For example, a customer of Indane Gas from Indian Oil Corporation can switch to a different Indane dealer but not to Bharat Gas of Bharat Petroleum or HP Gas of Hindustan Petroleum.

In a notice inviting comments from stakeholders, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) said that in situations where a local distributor faces operational constraints, consumers often have limited alternatives.

“There may be other reasons too, and the consumer needs to have the freedom of choice on the LPG company/dealer, especially when the cylinder price is the same,” PNGRB said.

The regulator noted that despite India achieving near-universal household coverage of over 32 crore LPG connections, grievances continue to exceed 17 lakh every year.

“While the oil marketing companies (OMCs) do strive to address the grievances, consumers do not have the option of migrating from one OMC/LPG dealer to another,” it said.

A portability pilot was first launched by the UPA government in 2013 in 24 districts across 13 states and extended nationwide in 2014.

However, that scheme allowed switching only within clusters of distributors of the same company, as regulations prevented cylinders of one OMC from being refilled by another.

PNGRB said it now intends to permit inter-company portability, which would allow consumers to be served by the nearest available distributor regardless of the OMC.

This, it added, would help address disruptions such as delayed or suspended supplies that have, in some cases, extended to several weeks.

“Such service interruptions have caused hardship to households and commercial establishments, particularly in areas where local distributors face suspension or operational constraints,” PNGRB said.

"These developments underscore the importance of adopting a continuity-centric approach to safeguard consumers against service failures and to ensure uninterrupted access to this essential fuel," it added.

In the 2014 scheme, OMCs had created over 1,400 clusters covering 480 districts, giving consumers an average of four distributors per cluster to choose from. PNGRB now proposes to build on that model with inter-company flexibility.

The regulator has sought comments from consumers, distributors, civil society organisations and other stakeholders on the draft LPG Interoperability Framework by mid-October, after which the PNGRB will frame guidelines and fix a date for rollout.