Costlier LPG Fuel

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What is the issue?

Recent government announced to withdraw LPG subsidies.
This move is likely to aggravate household air pollution, and impact the health bills.

How significant id household air pollution?

The household air pollution is largely due to improper ventilation combined with the use of biomass fuels for cooking and lighting.
The biomass emits pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, particulate matter, benzene, and metals including lead and copper.
Household air pollution leads to a range of diseases among women, who are the primary cooks in most Indian households.
There are many reported cases of chronic bronchitis, cataract and various adverse pregnancy outcomes among Indian women.

What is the role of LPG in Rural households?

To tackle the use of biomass the government introduced the Pradhan Mantri Ujwal Yojana (PMUY) in 2016 to promote the use of LPG for cooking.
LPG connections to households have steadily and significantly increased over the past few years.
It assists the poor in ensuring that this clean cooking fuel remains within the budget of many poor households.
It keeping them healthy and saving on time spent on collecting wood.

What are the negative impacts of LPG subsidy elimination?

This will impact marginal households and keep many households trapped in biomass use for daily cooking.

There will be an undeniable impact of air pollution on both public and personal health expenditures.
The affordability of LPG cylinders will be dubious, and people may turn towards biomass fuels and kerosene.
LPG vendors may face job loses if rural households turn back to biomass fuels.

Source: Business Standard