Just 1,000 LPG cylinders daily for over 1 lakh eateries of Karnataka | Bengaluru News
Bengaluru: The state govt’s new priority-based LPG cylinder allocation plan appears to have pushed the hotel sector to the edge as barely 1,000 cylinders will be available daily for a whopping 1 lakh-plus eateries across the state.In the plan, rolled out Monday following discussions with representatives of oil distribution companies, the govt put hospitals, student hostels, and educational institutions on top priority by allocating 60% of the total 7,000 cylinders available on a daily basis. The hotel sector comes third in the priority plan — after govt institutions, including KMF — with 14% allocation.
The move has not enthused the hotel sector. “In Bengaluru alone, there are around 45,000 eateries… the new cylinder allocation plan fails to support us,” rued a representative of Bangalore Hotels’ Association (BHA). Meanwhile, food and civil supplies minister KH Muniyappa admitted that the situation on the supply side was worsening by the day and the govt was only acting on the plan approved by the Centre. According to consumption data provided by oil marketing companies, Karnataka records an average daily commercial LPG demand of around 850 tonnes — equivalent to roughly 44,000 commercial cylinders (19kg equivalent) per day. However, as per indicative guidelines issued by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, the state has placed 20% of this supply under regulated allocation during the current supply constraint. This translates to 181.3 tonnes per day, or 9,544 cylinders, earmarked for controlled distribution. Out of this, 7,000 cylinders have been allocated for commercial establishments daily, while 2,544 cylinders are reserved for the auto LPG sector.“We hoped the hotel sector would get a higher allocation from the 7,000 cylinders to be released daily, but we are disappointed. A thousand cylinders for eateries across the state does not help us,” said BHA honorary president PC Rao. “We’ll be writing to chief minister Siddaramaiah seeking more allocation to the sector,” he added.
