Centre scraps supply of subsidised kerosene through PDS

New Delhi, Dec 5: Henceforth, Public Distribution System shops will not supply subsidised kerosene.

To begin with ending the subsidy regime, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday scrapped the supply of subsidised kerosene through the Public Distribution System (PDS).

The Hindu article says that the Centre will ask the states to provide subsidised kerosene only to households which doesn't have electricity connection yet.

The Centre had planned to cut its social sector spending allocations. The scraping of kerosene subsidy is seen as a part of that. Also, this is part of Centre's attempts to reduce the kerosene leakage from PDS shops for the adulteration of diesel.

Those states which have achieved near 100 per cent electrification will be incentivised to become kerosene-free, said The Hindu article. For others, only un-electrified households will be given the choice between cash subsidy in lieu of kerosene allocation and upfront subsidy for greener solar lighting systems, said the report.

The Census 2011 data had showed that only 2% rural population use kerosene and it is no longer a fuel of choice for cooking but is used for lighting purposes. The census said that LPG in urban and semi-urban areas has replaced kerosene completely and in rural areas, people prefer biomass to kerosene for cooking in the rural areas.

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