Saturday 5 October 2013

Two new consumer empowering initiatives Launched by MOPNG

New Delhi:-The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas today launched two new consumer empowering initiatives. A novel scheme of sale of 5 kg LPG cylinders at market price with minimal documentation through Company Owned Retail Outlets (Petrol Stations) and the Inter-Company LPG Portability scheme for consumers was launched by the  Minister of Petroleum Dr. M. Veerappa Moily in Bangalore and by  Minister of State Smt. Panabaka Lakshmi in Chennai.  The Schemes will not be implemented in cities/districts of the States going to Polls announced yesterday, due implementation of Model Code of Conduct. 
5 Kg Sale through COCO ROs
Presently, OMCs are marketing LPG filled cylinders to various customers through LPG distributor network all over India from their own LPG bottling Plants supplied to the Distributors godown.    All such customers are being enrolled by collecting Proof of Identity (POI), Proof of Address (POA) and a deposit for the cylinder and regulator and in turn issuing a Subscription Voucher thereby loaning the equipment to the customer in lieu of the deposit received.  Such customers are registered into OMC database as customers and subsequent refills are issued to only such customers who place their booking against the above customer number.  The cylinder is home delivered by LPG distributor in case of  regulardistributors and in case of RGGLV it is on Cash and Carry basis. 
There is an emerging segment of new consumers like IT professionals, BPO employees who want LPG but in absence of proper proof of address (POA) cannot access the same.  Further, because of their highly irregular work timings, they may not be able to visit the distributor or be at home to receive cylinders during normal working hours. For some consumers, the need is in small parcels or arises at odd times of the day when distributors may be closed. 
This initiative allows sale of 5 kg LPG cylinders at market price with merely any Proof of Identity (POI) through Company Owned Retail Outlets (Petrol Stations) to attend to demand of such consumers. The Sale of 5 kg cylinders will be done (Equipment + Product) at Non Domestic rates with /without regulator for the first time by charging Rs. 1000/- plus applicable taxes for the cylinder and Rs. 250/- plus applicable taxes for regulator. The cost of product and refills i.e. Cost of LPG will be as per non domestic rates applicable in the market. 
This scheme is expected to be a boon to migratory population such as students, IT professionals, BPO employees and persons with odd duty timings as it would provide them the flexibility to pick up cylinders and obtain subsequent refills at time of their choice as Petrol Stations are open for longer hours.  This scheme is being launched on 5.10.13 in the cities of Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore on a pilot basis through select Retail Outlets. Upon completion of the pilot, the facility would be extended to other towns and cities also. 
The total no. of outlets covered would be 11 outlets to begin with and a few more are expected to be added soon.
The 11 outlets are: 
1.      BPC COCO Bannarghatta Bangalore
2.      HPC COCO HBR Bangalore
3.      IOC COCO Whitefield, K.R. Puram, Bangalore
4.      HPC COCO Vile Parle (West) Mumbai
5.      BPC COCO SanpadaNavi Mumbai
6.      HPC COCO Acharya J C Road  Kolkata
7.      HPC COCO Rajarhat, New Town Kolkata
8.      BPC COCO Alipore, Kolkata
9.      HPC COMCO, Madhavaram, Chennai
10.  IOC COCO Indiranagar Chennai
11.  BPC COCO Mogappair, Chennai 
Portability of LPG connections across Oil Marketing Companies/distributors 
Under the portability scheme, a consumer can opt for the distributor of his choice within a cluster of LPG distributors in the vicinity. The option is to be registered electronically on the website of the OMC to which the consumer is presently attached.  This will bring great relief to consumers who are unhappy with their LPG distributor or want to move to a distributor closer to his home.
To register for Portability, the consumers need to do the following:
       Visit the OMC websites
o         IOCL   www.indane.co.in
o         HPCL   www.hpgas.com
o         BPCL    www.ebharatgas.com
         Register themselves in the site if not registered already
         See the distributors in the cluster and  their star rating in terms of refill delivery performance
( 5 Star- Excellent, 4 Star- Good, 3 star- Average, 2 Star- below Average and 1 star - Poor)
         Choose the distributor of his Choice from the cluster
         The consumer will then receive an email confirming the registration and advising details of procedure.
         In case of Intra-Company portability request, consumer has to just visit only the new distributor with copy of the email and get enrolled.
         In case of Inter-Company transfer, as the equipment is not compatible across companies, consumer will need to visit the existing distributor and surrender cylinder and pressure regulator, collect refund/ transfer documents and then approach the Chosen distributor for reconnection by paying the same deposit as earlier.
         No transfer fee or additional security deposit will be charged for transfer of connection under portability scheme.
         Proactive electronic tracking of the portability request and its closure is in place to ensure that a consumer does not have any difficulty in moving to the distributor of his choice.  
In order to facilitate the portability OMCs have made clusters of distributors in the 24 cities and are available on the OMC websites.
A complete electronic tracking of the request and closure is in place to ensure a consumer does not have any difficulty to move to a distributor of his choice.
This initiative will usher in improvement in consumer service by the distributors as it will bring in competition in the cluster of distributors and bring choice to consumers who want to change their LPG distributor within or across the Oil Company or want to move to a distributor closer to his home. This scheme now covers 24 cities across the country, as per list given below:
Sr. No
State
Cities/districts
1
Andhra Pradesh
Hyderabad/ Secunderabad
2
Andhra Pradesh
Vishakhapatnam
3
Bihar
Patna
4
Gujarat
Ahmedabad
5
Gujarat
Surat
6
Haryana
Faridabad
7
Jharkhand
Jamshedpur
8
Jharkhand
Ranchi
9
Karnataka
Bangaluru
10
Karnataka
Hubli
11
Kerala
Kochi
12
Kerala
Trivandrum
13
Maharashtra
Mumbai
14
Maharashtra
Pune
15
Maharashtra
Nagpur
16
Orissa
Bhubaneswar
17
Punjab
Chandigarh
18
Punjab
Ludhiana
19
Tamil Nadu
Chennai
20
Tamil Nadu
Coimbatore
21
Uttar Pradesh
Lucknow
22
Uttar Pradesh
Kanpur
23
Uttaranchal
Dehradun
24
West Bengal
Kolkata

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