Telangana LPG users face e-KYC hurdles before deadline
HYDERABAD: LPG consumers in Telangana are facing problems completing electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) requirements ahead of the August 16 deadline, with families of people living abroad, elderly consumers and households with two connections among those affected.
Oil marketing companies (OMCs) have directed households with LPG connections to complete e-KYC by August 16. Consumers are rushing to comply, worried about the impact on their connections and subsidies.
Though e-KYC has been made available at consumers’ homes through LPG delivery personnel to spare them queues at gas agencies, several other problems remain.
Consumers living abroad, deaths of connection holders, failure to capture fingerprints of elderly people, discrepancies between Aadhaar and LPG records and two connections in the same household are among the issues affecting completion of e-KYC.
OMCs seek to weed out bogus LPG connections
Recent international conflicts have affected the fuel market and put pressure on LPG supplies. Telangana had also witnessed delays in supplies and longer gaps between bookings and deliveries.
Against this backdrop, oil companies have focused on ensuring that available LPG reaches genuine domestic consumers while identifying and removing bogus, duplicate and long-unused connections.
OMCs are implementing e-KYC on a wider scale to identify genuine beneficiaries by linking consumers’ Aadhaar and biometric details.
Consumers living abroad face biometric hurdle
A large number of people from several Telangana districts have migrated to Gulf countries for employment. Many from the erstwhile Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Adilabad and Medak districts, as well as other areas, work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.
Students and employees from Hyderabad and other towns have also moved to the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
In families where the LPG connection is in the name of a person living abroad, the cylinder may be used by the spouse, parents or other family members. The absence of the connection holder during biometric authentication has become a hurdle.
Even if delivery personnel visit the house, e-KYC cannot be completed without biometric authentication of the connection holder. An IndianOil app has been made available for such consumers, but there are complaints that it is not working.
Families with connections obtained under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana are facing another problem. In some cases, the connection was taken in the name of the woman heading the household, who has since died, while other family members continue to use the same connection.
OMC rules provide for transferring an LPG connection to a legal heir or family member after the connection holder’s death. However, the documents required, the name-change procedure and repeated visits to agencies are proving difficult for poor families.
Consumers want a simpler mechanism to transfer such accounts to legal heirs instead of treating them as bogus connections.
Two connections, elderly consumers add to confusion
There is also concern over households where husband and wife have separate LPG connections.
As ration card and Aadhaar details are mapped through e-KYC, consumers lack clarity on what will happen when a family has two connections — whether one will be removed, converted into a commercial connection or lose its subsidy.
Failure to capture fingerprints of elderly consumers is another problem, particularly in rural areas. Poor internet connectivity, limited familiarity with mobile phones and malfunctioning biometric devices are slowing the KYC process.
In urban areas, information technology employees, bachelors and tenants may also be unavailable for authentication because they have travelled to their hometowns or for other reasons.
The e-KYC exercise was originally expected to be completed last month, but the deadline was extended to August 16. Oil companies have sought 100% completion by then.
About 70% of e-KYC is understood to have been completed in Telangana so far.
Reports that LPG connections could be cancelled for failure to complete e-KYC have increased anxiety among consumers. Agencies have already stopped LPG supplies to some consumers whose e-KYC is pending, according to the source copy. Failure to complete the process could also affect subsidy benefits.
Consumers say bogus connections should be removed, but genuine beneficiaries should not face difficulties in accessing LPG.
