Subsidised LPG price up Rs32 per cylinder post GST

Subsidised cooking gas (LPG) for domestic consumers will cost up to Rs32 more per cylinder with the onset of the goods and services tax (GST) - the steepest increase in six years.

Subsidised LPG, supplied in 14.4-kg cylinders, will now cost Rs477.46 in Delhi against Rs446.65 before GST was implemented on 1 July.

This is because, under GST, which subsumed more than a dozen central and state levies, a 5 per cent tax is levied on subsidised LPG. Accordingly, in states where VAT was nil or less than 5 per cent, rates have gone up.

Under the earlier indirect tax regime, a separate factory-gate duty and sales tax were levied, while there was no excise duty on LPG across the country.

VAT or sales tax was nil in Delhi as well as Chandigarh, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and some north-eastern states, while it ranged between 1 per cent and 5 per cent in other states.

Besides Delhi, subsidised LPG price has been hiked by Rs31.67 per cylinder to Rs480.32 in Kolkata and by Rs31.41 to Rs465.56 in Chennai, according to information available from oil companies.

In Mumbai, where a VAT of 3 per cent was applicable on LPG, the price has gone up by Rs14.28 to Rs491.25 per cylinder.

LPG rate saw the biggest hike of Rs50 per cylinder in June 2011, following a big jump in international oil prices.

Every household is entitled to 12 cylinders of 14.2-kg each at subsidised rates in a year. Any requirement beyond that has to be purchased at market price.

The rate of market-priced 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi is Rs564.

Sources said the 5 per cent GST resulted in a Rs26.88 increase in rate per cylinder in Delhi and the remaining hike of about Rs3 is because of the decision since June last year to raise prices by about Rs2 to cut the subsidy.

The rate of non-subsidised LPG, which consumers pay after exhausting their quota of below-market priced cylinders, went up by Rs11.5 to Rs564 as these attracted an 18 per cent GST.