Bhubaneswar, Sept. 1: Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan today said more than 160 million consumers registered under PAHAL-Direct Benefits Transfer for LPG were getting subsidy in their bank accounts.

Attending the International Conference on LPG cooking gas, Pradhan said: "Successful implementation of PAHAL has resulted in estimated savings of more than Rs 21,000 crore through elimination of duplicate, fake or ghost consumers."

Stating that the government had initiated several structural changes in subsidy management, the minister said: "The objective was to plug leakages in the direct transfer of subsidy into the beneficiaries' bank accounts. Introduction of income-based exclusion of consumers from availing themselves of subsidy, transparency portal and technological interventions have provided robust platform to carry out these changes."

Citing that India was a country with one of the largest LPG consumer bases - 174 million people consuming more than 200 million metric tonnes of LPG - Pradhan said: "We have a robust network of more than 18,000 distributors serving consumers in every nook and corner of the country. Further, there is a significant difference in LPG coverage between urban and rural areas. Today, nearly all urban households use LPG as compared to merely 38 per cent of the rural population."

Petroleum and natural gas ministry secretary K.D. Tripathy said: "More than one crore million consumers have voluntarily given up their LPG subsidy. This is an unprecedented experiment in volunteerism which has no parallel in the world."

Inaugurating the two-day conference here today, Jharkhand governor Droupadi Murmu recounted her own experience as a villager with no access to LPG.

She emphasised that the present government intervention in the LPG sector would result in significant improvement for the convenience of women. She also expressed confidence that this international conference would provide a suitable platform to improve the LPG distributor network.

United Nations assistant secretary general Lakshmi Puri elaborated on the UN's vision to provide clean and green sustainable energy to everyone.

She appreciated the Union government's efforts in ensuring energy access to the most vulnerable society of rural villages - which would impact the lives of women and girls living there. She also stressed gender equality and pointed out that women should also be given priority in LPG distribution.

The research and development initiative, along with public sector oil companies - Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation - organised the conference. Around 300 delegates from more than 10 countries attended the event. More than 24 speakers and delegates from various countries such as Brazil, Guatemala, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria, Nepal, Bhutan, Indonesia, Cameroon and Sri Lanka are taking part in the two-day programme.

Global LPG Partnership chairman Kimball Chen and senior bureaucrats and heads of state-owned oil companies, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Ram Sewak Sharma, Indian Oil chairman B. Ashok, BPCL chairman and managing director S. Varadarajan and HPCL chairman and managing director M.K. Surana also attended the conference. It will also have a session on the hugely successful "Give it up" scheme and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana.