Costlier LPG Fuel

Click here for Part I

What is the issue?

• Recent government announced to withdraw LPG subsidies.
• This move is likely to aggravate household air pollution, and impact the health bills.

How significant id household air pollution?

• The household air pollution is largely due to improper ventilation combined with the use of biomass fuels for cooking and lighting.
• The biomass emits pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, particulate matter, benzene, and metals including lead and copper.
• Household air pollution leads to a range of diseases among women, who are the primary cooks in most Indian households.
• There are many reported cases of chronic bronchitis, cataract and various adverse pregnancy outcomes among Indian women.

• Pollution from such fuels contribute to 12% of still births in the country.

What is the role of LPG in Rural households?

• To tackle the use of biomass the government introduced the Pradhan Mantri Ujwal Yojana (PMUY) in 2016 to promote the use of LPG for cooking.
• LPG connections to households have steadily and significantly increased over the past few years.
• It assists the poor in ensuring that this clean cooking fuel remains within the budget of many poor households.
• It keeping them healthy and saving on time spent on collecting wood.

What are the negative impacts of LPG subsidy elimination?

• This will impact marginal households and keep many households trapped in biomass use for daily cooking.

• There will be an undeniable impact of air pollution on both public and personal health expenditures.
• The affordability of LPG cylinders will be dubious, and people may turn towards biomass fuels and kerosene.
• LPG vendors may face job loses if rural households turn back to biomass fuels.

Source: Business Standard