5.56 Crore Consumers Took No Or Only One LPG Refill In 2025-26: RTI

Amid the fallout of the LPG supply crunch triggered by the war in the Middle East visible in long queues outside booking centres, panic buying, hoarding and soaring black-market rates, RTI replies from India's three major oil marketing companies have revealed a stark paradox in 2025-26, more than 5.56 crore LPG consumers either took no refill or just one refill in the entire year.

The data, accessed by Neemuch-based RTI activist Chandra Shekhar Gaur, shows that across Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, 3.30 crore consumers did not book even a single cylinder refill, while another 2.26 crore took only one refill through the fiscal year.

Behind these numbers are homes where LPG has not disappeared, but has become something to be rationed.

In Bhopal's Banganga area, Salma B lives with a family of seven. She has an LPG connection, but says the cylinder is used carefully and only intermittently. For the past four months, the family has largely fallen back on the traditional chulha. "We take a cylinder in between, but we try to keep using the chulha for cooking so that the expense comes down," she says.

Near Shyamla Hills, Shehzadi B tells a similar story. Her family of four has not taken a cylinder for nearly three months. "Earlier, we used to get a subsidy. Now, if we buy a cylinder for around Rs 920, it becomes too expensive. It hurts now," she says. For her family too, the chulha has again become the main cooking option.

The RTI figures show that this is not limited to Ujjwala households alone. Among PMUY beneficiaries, 1.67 crore consumers took no refill, while 1.12 crore took just one refill. In the non-Ujjwala category too, 1.63 crore consumers took zero refills and 1.13 crore took only one refill.

Company-wise, IOCL reported 2.03 crore zero-refill consumers and 1.01 crore one-refill consumers. BPCL reported about 70.96 lakh zero-refill consumers and 53.99 lakh one-refill consumers. HPCL reported around 55.93 lakh zero-refill consumers and 70.48 lakh one-refill consumers.

PMUY was launched to move poor households away from smoke-filled kitchens and towards cleaner fuel. But the data suggests that for millions of families, the connection exists, the cylinder exists, but the refill is becoming difficult to afford.

"The figures are despite government subsidising cooking gas prices for Ujjwala consumers. And the numbers of non-Ujjwala consumers who either did not take an LPG refill or took just one in the entire financial year are also very high," Gaur said.

"Overall, more than 5.5 crore households either took only one cylinder or did not take even one in an entire financial year. This clearly reflects the impact of inflation on normal households. The government should intervene with measures so that maximum households use LPG for cooking, which was the objective behind the ambitious Ujjwala Yojana," he added.

For families like Salma's and Shehzadi's, the issue is not whether they have an LPG connection. The question is whether they can afford to keep using it.