Domestic cooking gas cylinders diverted for commercial use in towns

Domestic cooking gas cylinders meant for households are being diverted to hotels, tiffin centers, and other commercial establishments across various towns, driven by the festive demand during Dasara and high commercial prices.

How The Racket Works

Delivery personnel and agents act as middlemen to collect high profits by selling domestic cylinders in the black market. While normal users face delays of one to ten days when booking cylinders themselves, middlemen instantly book and secure cylinders using phone numbers and OTPs of rural residents who still use firewood, paying them two hundred rupees in return. Prices charged for these diverted cylinders range between fifteen hundred, two thousand, and twenty-five hundred rupees depending on the demand. Meanwhile, the official price of a 19-kilogram commercial cylinder stands at thirty-four hundred and six rupees, while a 14.5-kilogram domestic cylinder costs ten hundred and thirteen rupees.

Official Action and Oversight

Local checks and monitoring by officials remain absent in towns like Dharmapuri, Korutla, Metpally, Jagtial, and Raikal, allowing the illegal trade to flourish despite online data tracking systems. Even though government KYC processes reduced over two thousand cylinders in the Dharmapuri mandal alone, the illegal business continues unchecked. Similar concerns over domestic cylinders fueling hotels, tea stalls, and food stalls are being raised by the public in Markapuram, where residents demand strict inspections and penalties against any involved distribution networks and businesses.

Context

Subsidized domestic gas cylinders are intended solely for household cooking purposes to ease financial burdens on families, whereas businesses are legally required to use costlier commercial cylinders. Diverting household supplies creates artificial shortages for regular consumers and evades commercial taxation rules, prompting calls for tighter official oversight.