More Stories

Informist, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The government Tuesday launched a scheme to fast-track the expansion of piped natural gas connections and bring clean, safe, and affordable cooking fuel to households across the country. The scheme, which will take effect from Sept. 1, builds on a series of steps taken by the government over the past few months to accelerate PNG expansion and make the transition to clean cooking fuel easier for households.

 

"Currently, there are 1.74 crore (17.4 million) domestic PNG connections across the country," the petroleum and natural gas ministry said in a release. "The new scheme directly incentivises the City Gas Distribution companies to actively convert unbilled connections into working gas connections, and expand the PNG network to new areas."

 

Under the scheme, eligible city gas distribution companies will be allocated an additional 200 standard cubic metres of domestically-produced, lower-priced gas for every incremental billed domestic PNG connection achieved during the performance period, over and above the threshold level determined for the respective geographical area, the ministry said. The scheme will be implemented in two tranches over six months. The additional gas allocation will substitute the costlier liquefied natural gas that gas distribution entities currently procure for their compressed natural gas segment, thereby lowering their overall gas-sourcing costs.

 

"The resulting cost savings are expected to shorten the payback period for capital expenditure incurred on D-PNG (domestic PNG) connections from around 10 years to approximately 3 years--giving CGD (city gas distribbution) entities a strong financial incentive to expand household PNG connectivity more rapidly, bringing the benefits of clean, safe and affordable piped cooking gas to a larger number of Indian households in the months ahead," the ministry said.

 

This comes soon after the war in West Asia exposed India's fragile domestic fuel availability as supply disruptions caused widespread shortage of liquefied petroleum gas, India's primary cooking gas. India imports about 60% of its overall LPG requirement. Of this, around 90% used to be routed through the Strait of Hormuz, the primary disruption point after the US and Israel launched a military attack on Iran on Feb. 28.

 

Since then, expanding domestic PNG connections has become a priority for the government. It has taken various measures to boost PNG expansion, including nudging states to bring Value Added Tax on natural gas down to 5% to make the fuel more affordable for households. The Assam government last month cut VAT on PNG to 5%.  End

 

Reported by Priyasmita Dutta

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd. by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd., a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt. Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.