“Dear LPG customer, as per available income-tax records, your (or a linked family member’s) gross taxable income exceeds the prescribed limit of Rs 10 lakh… If no response is received within the stipulated period, the LPG subsidy may be discontinued thereafter.” This message, received by multiple domestic LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) customers over the last few days, has sparked some confusion, rumours and many questions.
Several recipients pointed out on social media that they were already paying full price for a cylinder and were either unaware that they had been receiving any subsidy or had been receiving only a minor amount. Combined with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Hyderabad on Sunday, May 10, urging citizens to practice austerity in the light of rising fuel prices due to the Israel-US-Iran war, speculation has increased, including about possible price hikes.
It has been reported that the three state-owned fuel retailers (IOCL, HPCL and BPCL) have racked up losses of over Rs 1 lakh crore since mid-March, because fuel and gas prices were not raised despite the increase in input costs due to the conflict in West Asia. India imports about 60% of the LPG it consumes, with about 90% of that passing through the embattled Strait of Hormuz as of March 2026.
According to the website of oil marketing company Indian Oil, the non-subsidised price of a standard Rs 14.2 kg cooking gas cylinder for domestic use is Rs 913 in Delhi and Rs 928.50 in Chennai.
When contacted, local distribution agencies and officers at multiple oil marketing companies said this was a general SMS sent by all three OMCs to domestic LPG customers.
“There has been no directive from the ministry regarding any hike at the moment,” said one officer.
Another executive in Karnataka said this was a routine message, sent on the advice of the government. “It’s a periodic exercise based on mapping of data and linking of Aadhar and PAN – those who have crossed the income threshold can fill a form online and surrender the subsidy, if any,” he said.
There was no response to questions emailed to Indian Oil representatives.
Some reports said this was a result of oil marketing companies matching customer data with income tax filing records to weed out ineligible customers, but this could not be independently verified.
Since the launch of the PAHAL Scheme (direct benefit transfer of LPG) in 2015, all domestic LPG cylinders are being sold at non-subsidised prices, with any applicable subsidy transferred to the consumer’s bank account. Poor households registered under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) currently receive a subsidy of Rs 300 per 14.4 kg cylinder in their bank accounts.
Applicable for up to 12 refills per annum in 2023, this was reduced to 9 refills a year in 2025.
For non-PMUY customers who have not opted out of receiving a subsidy, the amount is currently almost negligible, ranging from Rs 15 to Rs 50, depending on the state, another executive said.
In December 2015, the petroleum ministry had announced that LPG subsidy would no longer be available for consumers whose taxable income was over Rs 10 lakh, but added that this would initially be “on a self-declaration basis while booking cylinders from January 2016 onwards” in keeping with “the approach of trusting the citizens”.
At the time, households were paying a subsidised price of about Rs 400 per cylinder when the market price was over Rs 600. This came in the wake of an appeal by the government in March that year to well-off citizens to voluntarily give up the LPG subsidy. But by 2018, only 4% of the 24.72 crore LPG domestic customers had obliged.
Then, in 2020, with global prices falling steeply during the pandemic, the government stopped paying a subsidy to domestic consumers, though there was no official announcement. In June 2022, oil secretary Pankaj Jain told the media that no subsidy was being paid on cooking gas since June 2020, except for Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) beneficiaries. In June 2020, the price of a 14.2 kg cylinder in New Delhi had fallen to Rs 593, but by May 2022, just before Jain’s statement, it had soared to Rs 1003.
The government has been questioned multiple times in Parliament about restoring the subsidy for non-PMUY LPG customers, but it has shied away from giving a clear answer to an issue that could become a political hot potato.
For instance, in March 2025, MP Vishnu Prasad explicitly asked the petroleum ministry whether there was any plan to “increase the frequency or amount of subsidy for regular connections.” Minister of State Suresh Gopi shared details about the 10.33 crore PMUY connections in the country and the increase in global prices, but did not shed light on whether those with regular connections would get higher subsidies.
More recently, in March 2026, MP NK Premachandran asked the petroleum ministry whether the government proposed to restore the domestic cooking gas subsidy and how much the government had saved through this non-disbursement. Again, Minister of State Suresh Gopi failed to provide a direct response to this.
In 2024, just before the general elections, Modi announced a Rs 100 across-the-board cut in cooking gas prices. Before the elections in five states the previous year, the government had announced that cylinder prices would be reduced by Rs 200.
With the latest round of Assembly elections concluding, petrol and diesel prices are widely expected to be increased in the coming days, against the backdrop of high global prices.