Petroleum Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan reviews the current status of CNG infrastructure in NCT of Delhi

Petroleum Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan reviews the current status of CNG infrastructure in NCT of Delhi



In the context of recent NGT order, Petroleum Minister, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, chaired a meeting today to review the current status of CNG Infrastructure in NCT of Delhi. During the discussions, IGL apprised the Minister that IGL has adequate capacity to immediately cater to an additional demand for CNG upto the extent of 100%.


 Shri Pradhan asked IGL to explore all options to further promote usage of CNG in all segments to curb down emissions and bring down pollution levels, such as increasing the number of CNG stations, incentivizing CNG refueling during non-peak hours and to explore various possibilities for incentivizing CNG kit conversion.

 Shri Pradhan advised his officials to take up with land owning agencies of Government of Delhi and Government of India for allotment of additional land to IGL for construction of new CNG stations. He also advised that the matter may be taken up with Ministry of Finance for rationalizing excise duty on CNG.

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PAHAL-Guinness world record







Petroleum Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan presented the certificate received from Guinness Book of World Records to the  Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today in New Delhi. The certificate is in recognition of PAHAL as the largest cash transfer programme in the world.

Government of India launched the `PAHAL’ Scheme in 54 districts of the country on 15.11.2014 and in remaining districts of the country on 1st January, 2015. LPG consumers who join the PAHAL scheme will get the LPG cylinders at market price and receive LPG subsidy (as per their entitlement) directly into their bank accounts.

The “Pahal” scheme has been acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest cash transfer program (households) with 12.57 crore households receiving cash transfer as of 30th June, 2015. As on 03rd Dec, 2015, 14.62 crore LPG consumers have joined the PAHAL scheme and are receiving the subsidy directly into their Bank Accounts.

This scheme has enabled substantive savings in subsidy on supply of LPG consumers to the households. As on 1st April, 2015, there were 18.19 crore registered LPG Consumers and 14.85 crore active consumers implying a gap of 3.34 crore consumers which are duplicate / fake / inactive accounts blocked under PAHAL Scheme and related initiatives.  If we take into account the quota of 12 cylinders per consumer and the average LPG subsidy of Rs.366 per cylinder for the year 2014-15, estimated savings in LPG subsidy due to the blocking of 3.34 crore accounts work out to Rs.14,672 crore, during that year.    Further, as of today, out of a total of 16.27 crore active consumers, 14.62 crore consumers are availaing subsidy – resulting in further subsidy saving for 1.65 crore consumers.    

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AP Joins UDAY Scheme

Andhra Pradesh (AP) Government has conveyed its in-principle approval to Ministry of Power (MoP) for joining UDAY Scheme (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) .  On  receiving this official communication from Andhra Pradesh Government , Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy has congratulated Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Shri N Chandrababu Naidu for joining UDAY.


ABOUT UDAY SCHEME:

The Scheme – UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana) has been launched to improve financial and operational efficiencies of power distribution companies (DISCOMs). It envisages to reduce interest burden, cost of power and AT&C losses. Consequently, DISCOM would become sustainable to supply adequate and reliable power enabling 24x7 power supply. The scheme provides that States would take over 75% debt of Discoms, as on 30th September, 2015 in two years.

UDAY has inbuilt incentives encouraging State Governments to voluntarily restructure their debts. These incentives include taking over of DISCOM debt by the States outside the fiscal deficit limits; reduction in the cost of power through various measures such as coal linkage rationalization, liberal coal swaps, coal price rationalization, correction in coal grade slippage, allocation of coal linkages at notified prices; priority/additional funding through schemes of MoP & MNRE; and, reduction in interest burden. UDAY is different from earlier restructuring schemes in several ways including flexibility of keeping debt taken over outside fiscal deficit limit, reduction in cost of power and a series of time bound interventions for improving operational efficiency. UDAY provides for measures that will reduce the cost of power generation, which would ultimately benefit consumers.

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LED Bulbs Distribution Started in Uttrakhand & Jharkhand this Week


Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy has said that LED bulbs distribution under the Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP) has started in Uttrakhand and Jharkhand this week . Shri Goyal further said “ We remain committed to expanding LED programmes to all States .”  In his tweets today,   Shri Goyal said :ED distribution has starte