The price of domestic cooking gas (LPG) was hiked by ₹50 per cylinder on Monday, as announced by the Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The new price will be in effect from April 8.
The increase in cooking gas price will be for both, the Ujjawala - poor beneficiaries who got LPG connection free of cost - and general users.
Cooking gas for Ujjawala users will cost ₹553 per 14.2-kg cylinder from the current ₹503 in the national capital. The same for general users will now cost ₹853.
The rates, which vary from state to state depending on local incidence of taxes, were last revised in March last year when they were cut by ₹100.
Also, CNG prices were hiked by Re 1 per kg in the national capital and adjoining cities after the government last week raised input natural gas prices by almost 4 per cent.
Also Read: Govt hikes excise on petrol, diesel by ₹2
CNG in the national capital will cost ₹75.09 per kg, Indraprastha Gas Ltd - the city gas retailer - said in a post on X.
This follows the price of input natural gas being hiked from USD 6.50 per million British thermal units to USD 6.75 from April 1.
The Minister defended the move, saying oil companies had been incurring losses on LPG sales and the increase in retail price and revenue from excise hike will be used to make up for that.
The average Saudi CP - the international benchmark used for LPG pricing since India is majorly import-dependent to meet its needs - has risen by 63 per cent to USD 629 per tonne in February 2025 from USD 385 in July 2023, he said.
This necessitates LPG to be priced at ₹1,028.50 per 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi.
"But the public sector oil marketing companies have been so far modulating the prices," he said, adding that the oil PSUs suffered under-recoveries or loss of ₹41,338 crore in the fiscal year ended March 31 (2024-25) on account of selling LPG below cost.
Given the mounting losses, the prices have been moderately increased.
"At current prices, the cost of cooking per day using LPG for Ujjawala households is around ₹6.10 and that for general users is ₹14.58, which is reasonable," Puri noted.
The rates, he said, will be reviewed every month and any softening will be passed on to consumers.
The ₹50 per cylinder hike will only cover the future cost and for the past cost, the oil ministry will seek budgetary support from the finance ministry.
The additional accruals from the excise duty hike can be used to compensate the oil companies for their losses, he said.
"It is our commitment to make good their losses."
As much as 16,000 crore litres of petrol and diesel is consumed annually in the country and the ₹2 a litre excise hike could yield up to ₹32,000 crore to the government.
While the mop up from excise duty hike on petrol and diesel will be solely at the disposal of the central government, as SAED is out of the divisible pool with the states, the LPG price hike of ₹50 per cylinder is likely to mop up ₹5,000-7,000 crore.
"The #ExciseDuty increase of ₹2 per litre on #petrol and #diesel by the Central Government will not be passed on to the consumers. On the one hand, this will insulate the customers from the price hike, while on the other hand, the collected amount may be utilised towards under-recovery of #LPG, providing relief to Oil Marketing Companies," Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) - the nation's largest oil firm - said in a post on X.
Follow us
