Domestic LPG cylinder price hiked by ₹50

Prices for domestic liquefied petroleum gas were hiked by ₹50 on Wednesday, taking the LPG price in the national capital to ₹1,053 per 14.2 kg cylinder.

Following the price hike, non-subsidised cooking gas now costs ₹1,052.50 per cylinder in Mumbai, according to a price notification issued by state-run fuel retailers.

Consumers in Chennai will have to shell out ₹1068.50 for an LPG cylinder while the price of cooking gas in Kolkata has gone up to ₹1,079.

Costs of LPG cylinders vary across cities due to value-added tax (VAT) and other taxes.

Prices of 5 kg domestic cooking gas have also been hiked by ₹18.

Domestic LPG prices were last revised on May 19 when the rate was hiked by ₹3.50 per 14.2 kg cylinder. Prior to that, LPG prices were raised by ₹50 per cylinder on May 7. Cooking gas prices were hiked by the same amount on March 22.

State-run oil retailers sell 14.2 kg cylinders to households at the market rates. The government, however, offers subsidies for 12 such cylinders to beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme each year. The subsidy is transferred via direct benefit transfer to bank accounts of such customers.

Meanwhile, the price of a 19 kg commercial LPG cylinder has been cut by ₹8.50. This comes after oil marketing companies reduced the prices of commercial LPG cylinders by ₹198 per cylinder on July 1.

On June 1, the price of a 19 kg commercial LPG cylinder was cut by ₹135 across the country.

The security deposit for a 14.2 kg LPG cylinder will be ₹2,200 instead of ₹1,450 earlier. For a 5 kg cylinder, the deposit has been increased to ₹1,150 from ₹800 earlier.

The price hike comes at a time when Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation is expected to remain higher than the upper tolerance level of the Reserve Bank of India until December.

India's retail inflation fell from an eight-year high of 7.79% in April to 7.04% in May, staying above the central bank's upper tolerance limit for the fifth straight month. The drop in CPI inflation came after the government announced a tax cut on petrol and diesel on May 21.

The Reserve Bank last month hiked its inflation projection for the financial year 2022-23 to 6.7% from 5.7% earlier on the back of rising crude oil prices.