Tag Archives: Liquefied petroleum gas

Safety Tips

6 Simple tips to claim Domestic LPG explosion insurance

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LPG_P_181013_Fotor             Way back in 2003, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd on Thursday announced a Rs 15 lakh insurance scheme for its domestic cooking gas (LPG) users to cover for loss of life and injuries due to an accident with an LPG cylinder.

Over the years, the amount has increased to Rs40lacs/-. The dealers have to pay the premium to the insurance companies.

However, due to NIL awareness levels, no claims are lodged against Domestic LPG explosions.

According to IOC Ltd Citizen Charter, the IOC distributor will offer assistance to the consumer in completing the formalities of insurance claims arising out of the accident.

HPCL website states all registered HP GAS consumers (having valid SV) are insured against outcome of an accident at their registered premises due to LPG. Details are available with all the distributors and Customer Service Cell In addition, HPCL has also taken a Public Liability Insurance Policy.

Valid SV stands for Valid Subscription Voucher.

The following are few simple tips:

01) Check with your LPG distributor on the requisites for a valid insurance claim.

02)Use only Original accessories which are ISI approved.

03)Request your dealer to do the maintenance check every year.

04)Preserve the maintenance check receipt.

05)In case of death due to explosion of gas cylinder, the victim has to appeal in the court demanding compensation

06)Insurance agents said it is very easy to get the claim — informs cops and gas agency, wait for survey by insurance officials and soon you will get the claim amount.

We Indian citizens have to create awareness amongst ourselves. No gas company or insurance company will create awareness. The main challenge in claiming the insurance amount is that the evidence has to be preserved till the survey by insurance officials. In majority of the households, the scene of accident is immediately cleaned up, so that the routine life can go on.

 

 

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Don’t insist on Aadhaar for gas: Andhra Pradesh High Court

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Sri T.S.R Sharma had filed a writ petition in Andhra Pradesh High Court on the action of Oil Companies in insisting that subsidized LPG Cylinders would be provided to only those consumers with Aadhaar Cards.

The Andhra Pradesh division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the AP High Court on Thursday told the Centre and the gas agencies not to insist on consumers having an Aadhaar card for supply of subsidised LPG cylinders.

The main argument put by Counsel for the petitioner was on collecting data of citizens through biometrics amounts to intruding on the privacy of citizens and it was against the basic principles of law.

He argued that till date the Centre has not made any law mandating that Aadhaar card is compulsory to receive benefits under the subsidy scheme.

The Chief Justice asked assistant solicitor-general Ponnam Ashok Goud under which law the Centre was insisting on Aadhaar cards to extend subsidies to citizens.

Goud pointed out that the petitioner has not made either the ministry of petroleum or the ministry of planning as parties to the petitions. Assistant solicitor-general Ponnam Ashok Goud admitted in the AP High Court that the Centre has so far not issued any notification making the Aadhaar card mandatory for the supply of LPG cylinders.

Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta said that in the absence of a notification or law, the oil companies have no right to insist on an Aadhaar card for supply of LPG cylinders.

At present, LPG dealers in Andhra Pradesh state are collecting Rs 1050 per cylinder (the price of the full cylinder without the subsidy) from consumers with the assurance that the subsidy of about Rs 570 will be credited into the bank accounts of the consumers if their Aadhaar card, gas consumer number and bank account are enrolled and linked.

 

However, according to legal analysts, Thursday’s order of the AP High Court directing the authorities not to insist on production of Aadhaar card for supplying LPG cylinder will provide little relief to consumers. According to them, the gas dealers and oil companies will not be affected as they can continue to charge the full price from consumers, but the latter will be hit as they will be deprived of their subsidy reimbursement.

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LPG portability: Remember to port your Aadhaar details too

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The Indian Petroleum Minister, Shri Veerapan Moily has unveiled two customer friendly initiatives i.e

01) LPG portability,

02)sale of 5-kg cylinders at petrol pumps

Under the inter-company LPG portability scheme, customers can choose to switch distributor of any of the three state-run oil marketing firms – Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.

Consumers can also opt for the distributor of his choice within a cluster of LPG distributors in the vicinity and across the oil companies from today.

Presently, an LPG consumer is attached to a distributor and cannot change his distributor even if he is unhappy with the service.

The scheme would be available in 30 cities. “Consumers will be able to see the service ratings of all the distributors in their cluster and choose the one they want based on service levels,” the statement said.

To make it easier for consumers, the option can be registered electronically on the website of the oil marketing companies they are attached to.

Electronic tracking of the portability request and closure is in place to ensure that a consumer does not have any difficulty in moving to a distributor of his choice.

As this is a Pilot launch, the  LPG portability scheme will be initially available in Hyderabad and Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh; Patna in Bihar; Raipur in Chhatisgarh; Delhi; Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat; Faridabad in Haryana; Jamshedpur and Ranchi in Jharkhand; Bangaluru and Hubli in Karnataka.

The other places are: Kochi and Trivandrum in Kerala; Bhopal and Indore in Madhya Pradesh; Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur in Maharashtra; Bhubaneshwar in Orissa; Chandigarh and Ludhiana in Punjab; Jaipur and Jodhpur in Rajasthan; Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu; Lucknow and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh; Dehradun in Uttaranchal and Kolkata in West Bengal.

Nation wide roll-out is planned after the 3 months. This is to enable the Oil Ministry to observe the pilot launch, and fine tweak if any difficulties are observed.

Under the scheme, a prospective consumer has to first to register with the outlet, giving a copy of his/her voter ID card, driving license, PAN card, Aadhaar card or any official document as a proof of identity and buy the equipment with or without regulator at Rs.1,000 plus taxes.

 

On subsequent refills, only the fuel cost has to be paid.

Consumers need to remember to Port their Aadhaar details too, to the new distributor, as there will be a change in the Consumer Number, when the Gas connection is shifted. At the bank end, there is no need for change of any details, as the LPG subsidy is routed based on the Aadhaar Number only.

 

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DBTL – Acid test after 31/08/2013

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Yes, all Banks in Tumkur will work on next two Sundays i.e 25/08/2013 and 01/09/2013. Tumkur is part of Pilot project of Aadhaar-DBT for LPG subsidy.

The LPG cash subsidy transfer was launched in June 2013, and the residents have time till 31/08/2013 to complete the linkage between their Aadhaar Number, LPG Companies and Bank accounts.

There are 2,68,977 LPG consumers in Tumkur district.

Still 60,000+ consumers who have got their Aadhaar number linked with LPG consumer number have to get their bank account number seeded with this data.  This is a bit worrisome, as after 31/08/2013, LPG consumers will not get the subsidy credited to their bank accounts, if the linking is not completed. They will have to pay the full LPG cylinder price and forego the subsidy part.

Bankers are doing their best to encourage LPG consumers to visit their bank branches and complete the seeding part. Towards this end, Tumkur Lead Bank Manager, Shri Jayaramaiah has convinced all Bank branches in Tumkur district to remain open on August 25 and September 1, to facilitate LPG consumers to get their Aadhaar number linked with their bank account number.

The pending linkages are common across all the 20 districts where the DBT-LPG scheme has rolled out.

Starting 1 September, in the 20 districts where the scheme has been rolled out, customers will have no option but to pay market price for cooking gas and be reimbursed a subsidy through a transfer to their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. Till then, customers who haven’t had their bank accounts linked with Aadhaar numbers have the option of getting subsidized cylinders from dealers.

What is DBTL?

* All LPG consumers who want to avail subsidy must provide Aadhaar number to LPG distributor and to their bank accounts

 

* Consumers will get advance subsidy in bank accounts as soon as they book the first subsidized cylinder. Consumer pay market price of cylinder to distributor

 

* Once first cylinder is delivered, subsidy eligible on date of delivery up to the cap of nine cylinders gets credited to bank account

 

* Three months’ grace time for consumers yet to link their Aadhaar number to bank account and LPG distributor

 

* After grace time, if consumers fail to link Aadhaar number, cylinders will be available to them only at market price i.e. without subsidy

There will be renewed interest in Aadhaar numbers and the linkages in the coming weeks.

 

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