Click to play videoNew Delhi: Making a simple cup of tea now costs Manas Barua almost twice of what he would have spent if he were cooking with a subsidised LPG cylinder.
Manas has been waiting for his gas connection to come through, but with the country's largest LPG retailer - Indian Oil Corporation - putting all new connections on hold, his wait might just get longer.
"I am having to refill these small cyliners every week. Not only is it very inconvenient, it's also turning out to be very expensive. I pay over Rs 150 for three kilos," says he.
The company claims the move is to cut costs because profits had dipped by almost 70 per cent in this quarter and more than 2 lakh consumers, who were waiting for a new connection, have been left high and dry.
IOC Chairman and MD, Sarthak Behuria says, "There are huge price differnces and we have problems regarding diversions. The cylinders have been used in the auto sector and commercial sector and people don't want to surrender them."
Off-camera, some company dealers admitted they may not comply with this latest directive, but that would not help consumers, many of whom have already been forced to buy cylinders illegally, in black, throwing their budgets completely out of gear.
The largest fuel retail company, the Indian Oil Corporation serves more than half of the country's total domestic LPG needs and this in itself reflects the magnitude of the problem consumers are likely to face in the near future with these drastic measures.
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