By Apurva Bhatt

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week appealed to the nation to  give up LPG subsidy, Chetan Kothari a businessman from Mulund immediately told his cousins and extended families no to apply. He says, “I told everyone that we can afford normal gas cylinder hence we do not need to apply for subsidy.” Like Chetan  every one out of four Mumbaikars has not applied for the LPG subsidy.

 Sources said that as many as six lakh residents in the city have opted out of the LPG subsidy scheme, the deadline for which expired on March 31. Several corporates had also recently urged employees to give up the subsidy, and the response seems to have been good—with several consumers opting out voluntarily, a senior official from an oil marketing company said."Nearly 76.7% city residents had opted for the subsidy and switched to the cash transfer scheme till April 1.

The percentage has been higher (82.79%) in Maharashtra," the official said. "We have been advertizing and appealing to middle class and upper middle class families to give up the subsidy. We are glad that 23% responded," he added.

Those who applied for the subsidy but did not complete formalities have time till June. "While many have opted out of the subsidy, we have seen a satisfactory level of enrolment," said a BPCL officer. At present, a fixed permanent advance of Rs 568 is also given to every consumer's bank account.