PNGRB is now also trying to allow an Intercompany portability | Photocredit: Ani
Unhappy with your LPG provider? Relief can be around the corner. In a movement that is comparable to the portability of mobile number, cooking gas consumers will soon be able to change their supplier without changing their existing connection, which offers more choice and improved service.
Oil control PNGRB has invited stakeholders and consumer commentary on the LPG interoperability framework.
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) stated in the notification inviting remarks that in situations in which a local distributor is confronted with operational limitations, consumers often have limited alternatives, leading to hardships.
“There may also be other reasons and the consumer must have the freedom of choice on the LPG company/dealer, especially when the cylinder price is the same,” said it.
In October 2013, the UPA government had launched a pilot portability of LPG connections in 24 districts, which covered 13 states and extended IT Pan-India in January 2014, with 480 districts.
In contrast to mobile services, where, however, consumers have the opportunity to switch between different mobile companies, LPG consumers, however, allowed limited options to change their dealers in 2014, not the oil company.
What that meant was that a consumer of Indian Oil Corporation had the option to choose from Indian gas traders in the area. But the consumer could not switch to Bharat gas from Bharat Petroleum or HPGAs from Hindustan Petroleum.
Intercompany Portability was not legally possible at that time, because the law provided for an LPG cylinder that belonged to a specific company to only be submitted to that company for refillings.
PNGRB is now also trying to allow an intercompany portability.
“In order to strengthen the continuity of LPG Supply and Safeguard Consumer Trust, PNGRB invites and suggestions from consumers, distributors, social organizations and other stakeholders about measures that can be able to facilitate timely access to refillings inside by consumer -serving the Nearest Distributors available Distributors Existing network, especially in times of disruption, “the regulators said.
PNGRB said that India has achieved almost universal LPG household coverage with more than 32 crore connections from FY25.
“Persistent consumer complaints, however, remain more than 17 Lakhs per year,” it added.
“While the oil marketing companies (OMCs) strive to tackle the complaints, consumers do not have the opportunity to migrate from one OMC/LPG dealer to another.” Although interoperability has been adopted with great success in telephony, the same did not happen in the LPG sector.
“Recent reports from different regions have emphasized a number of cases of delivery disruptions and long -term delays in LPG filling fillings, in some cases that extend to a few weeks. Such interruptions on service have caused hardship of households and commercial branches, in particular in areas where local distributors are confronted with suspension.
“These developments underline the importance of using a continuity -oriented approach to protect consumers against service errors and to guarantee uninterrupted access to this essential fuel,” PNGRB said.
In the 2014 schedule, the OMCs made more than 1,400 clusters, distributors in more than 480 districts, with an average of nearly 4 distributors per cluster to choose from. An LPG consumer in these markets could switch to the distributor of his/her choice within a cluster of LPG distributors in the neighborhood under the LPG connection portability schedule.
As soon as comments have been received, PNGRB is framing rules and guidelines for LPG -Wereability and repair a date for the rollout in the country. For the time being, reactions have been invited in mid -October.
Published on September 28, 2025
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