Government has launched LPG portability

The Government of India has launched a scheme offering portability for LPG connections.  This means if a customer is not satisfied with his present distributor, he has the choice to shift his connection to another dealer. However, unlike mobile services where you could change the service provider or the mobile company, an LPG consumer will have the option to change the dealer within the same distribution company but not the oil company. For example, a consumer of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) will have the option to choose from other IOC dealers but will not be able to switch to dealers of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) or Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL). The pilot project has been launched in Chandigarh. The service would be extended to 25 more districts in the next fiscal. This will help in providing better services to 13.5 crore customers and end the monopolistic practices of the cooking gas distributors GOI has also launched new IT/web-enabled initiative, ‘Lakshya’ to enable consumers book and track refills online as well on mobile phone. It would enhance transparency in distribution of cylinders. Under the new initiative, customers can rate their distributors on service and anybody found wanting could possibly face termination of dealership. Now each distributor is being automatically rated from 5 stars to no star on a graded scale using transaction data. The distributor who supplies 85 per cent of cylinders booked in less than two days is rated 5 stars and the distributor who supplies 85 per cent of cylinders beyond 10 days is rated with no star. Others are rated in between according to their delivery pattern. The rating will help consumers select distributorships once portability is available.