Domestic cooking gas cylinder prices crossed the ₹1,000 mark on May 7 with oil marketing companies (OMCs) revising the prices by ₹50 per cylinder.
The price of a cylinder containing 14.2 kg of liquefied petroleum gas in Chennai now stands at ₹1,015.50. It was previously ₹965.50 in the city. In Coimbatore, the price will now be ₹1,029 per bottle.
Similarly, prices of 5 kg cylinders that are used by roadside vendors too have gone up from ₹355 per cylinder to ₹373 per cylinder.
The OMCs have, however, reduced commercial LPG prices by ₹8 per 19 kg bottle.
Padma Santhanam, a resident of West Mambalam, said at a time when prices of all goods were skyrocketing, this comes as a huge blow to household budgets. “I remember that sometime in 2014, prices had gone up and crossed ₹1,000 but the then Central Government had stepped in with a subsidy to help consumers since this is an essential item. This government, however, has done away with subsidy and we have been buying LPG at the market rate for over two years now,” she said.
Consumer activist T. Sadagopan who called the hike extremely unfair said the DMK had promised a subsidy of ₹100 per cylinder pre-elections. “It’s been exactly a year since they came to power in the State. We are yet to see this promise being kept,” he pointed out. He also said that the pricing of LPG was not transparent. “Nobody knows how much it costs the government. At least in the case of petrol and diesel, some information comes in from time to time,” Mr. Sadagopan added.
