LPG Subsidy Stopped? RTI to the Oil Marketing Company

Sunita V. lives in a mofussil town in Maharashtra and holds a 14.2 kg domestic LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). Her Aadhaar-seeded bank account had been receiving the Rs.300 subsidy like clockwork for every refill through 2025. In January 2026 she booked a cylinder, paid roughly Rs.900 to the delivery man, and within a week the familiar Rs.300 landed in her account. So did the second refill in March.

Then came the third refill, delivered mid-May 2026. The cylinder arrived, she paid the full amount, but the subsidy never came. She waited a week, then two. The distributor on the phone said, “system mein release ho gaya hai” — it has been released in the system. The bank said no credit had arrived. Around the same time her phone received an SMS in English asking her to complete biometric Aadhaar authentication by 30 June 2026. She was travelling for a family wedding, her old phone number was linked to the connection, and the message did not make sense to her. She ignored it.

By July 2026 her fourth refill also carried no subsidy. The PAHAL scheme — formally Pratyaksh Hanstantrit Labh, the world's largest direct benefit transfer programme with more than 29 crore enrolled consumers — has a transaction log for every single refill. The distributor can see only his slice of it. The full record, the one that says exactly why Sunita's subsidy paused and on what date, sits with the Oil Marketing Company. This guide shows how to pull that record out using the Right to Information Act, 2005.

PAHAL, also called DBTL (Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG), was launched in 2015 as a governance reform to curb leakage in the subsidised cooking gas system. Instead of the distributor deducting the subsidy at the doorstep, the consumer pays the market price and the subsidy is credited directly to the bank account linked to the LPG connection through Aadhaar or an LPG-ID seeding. The scheme is administered by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), Government of India, through three public-sector Oil Marketing Companies:

1. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) — the Indane brand
2. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) — the Bharatgas brand
3. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) — the HP Gas brand

All three are majority-owned by the Central Government and are therefore “public authorities” within the meaning of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act, 2005 — they are bodies owned and substantially financed by the government. Being listed on the stock exchange does not remove this status. The Central Information Commission has confirmed this in repeated orders, including *Omprakash Kashiram v. BPCL* (21 January 2022), *Shek Rafikul v. BPCL* (15 September 2022) and *L. Gopalakrishnan v. IOCL* (9 September 2024). This is the legal foundation that lets you file RTI directly to an OMC.

The targeted Ujjwala wing of the scheme, PMUY, had 10.58 crore connections as of 2026. Under the subsidy structure prevailing in 2026, PMUY beneficiaries receive a Rs.300 per cylinder subsidy on the first 4 refills each year, after the Centre reduced the entitlement from 9 refills to 4 in June 2026 citing the global price surge. The effective cost to a Ujjwala household is roughly Rs.642 per cylinder against a Delhi market price of about Rs.1,600. Non-Ujjwala general consumers pay around Rs.942, with an implicit subsidy of about Rs.700 absorbed by the OMCs and the exchequer. The total LPG subsidy burden for FY26 was estimated at roughly Rs.60,000 crore, up from Rs.41,338 crore the year before.

To ask a sharp question you need to know how the money moves. The chain, for every subsidised refill, is:

1. Booking — you book through the OMC app, SMS, IVRS or the MyLPG.in portal. A refill request is generated against your 17-digit LPG-ID.
2. Delivery — the distributor delivers the cylinder and enters a “delivery confirmation” with a timestamped refill record. You pay the full marked price.
3. DBT file generation — the OMC's PAHAL system batches the day's deliveries into a DBT file, pairing each LPG-ID with its seeded bank account and Aadhaar number.
4. Subsidy credit — the subsidy amount (Rs.300 for Ujjwala, or the applicable general-consumer subsidy) is transferred to your bank through NPCI's Aadhaar Payment Bridge or account-credit route, and a UTR (Unique Transaction Reference) is generated against your refill.
5. SMS — on success, the OMC sends an SMS with the subsidy amount and reference. On failure, the credit is held back and the record is flagged.

The UTR is the single most important artefact in your file. It proves the subsidy either left the OMC (and the failure is at the bank) or never left (and the failure is at the OMC — typically because of seeding, biometric-authentication or income-limit reasons). When the distributor says “released in system” but the bank sees nothing, only the OMC's transaction log can tell you which side is right.

Two changes in 2026 explain almost every “my subsidy suddenly stopped” complaint this year.

1. Biometric Aadhaar Authentication (BAA) deadline — 30 June 2026. A Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas communication dated 18 May 2026 directed IOCL, BPCL and HPCL to ensure that every consumer who had never completed biometric Aadhaar authentication since getting their connection must finish it by 30 June 2026. Consumers who miss the deadline have their PAHAL/DBTL subsidy and the targeted Ujjwala subsidy kept in abeyance — no subsidy is paid on refills taken after the deadline until the biometric authentication is completed. Crucially, the subsidy is restored only prospectively on completion; the arrears for the gap period are not paid. The refill supply itself must not be stopped — only the subsidy pauses. States and UTs that give their own additional LPG subsidies were also asked to pause their top-ups for the same consumers. The eKYC can be done from home, free, through IndianOil ONE or AadhaarFaceRD (Indane), Hello BPCL (Bharatgas), and HP Pay or Aadhaar FaceRD (HP Gas).

2. Income-limit exclusion enforced again from 2025-26. A MoPNG/PIB notification dated 28 December 2015 had ruled that the LPG subsidy would not be available to a consumer (or their spouse) whose taxable income exceeded Rs.10 lakh in the previous financial year, computed under the Income Tax Act, 1961. From 2025-26 the OMCs have begun cross-referencing the LPG subscriber database with the Income Tax Department's PAN/Aadhaar-linked data. Affected consumers receive an SMS with a 7-day window to dispute the finding; if no response is received, the subsidy is discontinued.

These two developments are the first things your RTI should probe. If your subsidy paused after July 2026, biometric authentication is the most likely cause. If it paused with an SMS about income, the income-limit cross-match is the cause. Knowing which one applies to you sharpens the questions you ask.

You will normally file one application, to the CPIO of your OMC Area Office. Only file a second application to MoPNG if your question is about policy (say, the income-limit notification itself) rather than your own transaction log.

Step 1 — Identify your OMC and the correct PIO. Look at your LPG booklet or the SMS you receive on booking. The brand tells you the OMC: Indane = IOCL, Bharatgas = BPCL, HP Gas = HPCL. The Area Office covering your distributor is the operational custodian. Address the application to the Central Public Information Officer, [OMC Name] — [Area Office], [City]. The OMC's head office can also be used for policy questions.

Step 2 — Gather your identifiers. Note your 17-digit LPG-ID, your distributor code (printed on the booklet and every cash memo), your consumer number, the last 4 digits of the seeded bank account, and the refill dates and cash-memo numbers for which subsidy is missing. You do not need to write your full Aadhaar number — only the seeding status is relevant, and writing the full number is both unnecessary and a privacy mistake.

Step 3 — Prepare your questions. Ask for dated records, not “details.” Six strong sample questions:

1. “Furnish the refill-by-refill ledger for my LPG-ID [number] for the last 12 months, with delivery date, cash-memo number, amount charged, and the subsidy UTR for each refill.”
2. “Furnish the Aadhaar-seeding and bank-account seeding status for my LPG-ID, with the date of the last successful seeding update and the name of the bank branch.”
3. “State whether biometric Aadhaar authentication (BAA) was pending for my LPG-ID as on 30 June 2026; if so, furnish the exact date from which my subsidy was kept in abeyance under the MoPNG communication dated 18 May 2026, and whether arrears for the gap period are marked lapsed or held.”
4. “If BAA has since been completed, furnish the date of completion and the refill number from which subsidy was restored prospectively.”
5. “If subsidy was withheld under the Rs.10 lakh taxable-income exclusion, furnish the PAN/data source used, the date of the 7-day SMS dispute notice sent to me, and the notification number relied upon.”
6. “Furnish a certified copy of any Give-It-Up or opt-out declaration on record against my LPG-ID, with date and mode of submission, or state that no such declaration exists.”

Step 4 — Pay the fee and submit. The fee is Rs.10 per application under the Central RTI Rules, payable by Indian Postal Order, court-fee stamp, or cash against a receipt. You can also file online through the Central RTI portal (rtionline.gov.in) and pay by debit or credit card — select the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and route to the OMC. BPL applicants are exempt from the fee on producing a BPL certificate. Keep proof of submission: a stamped receiving copy, the registered-post acknowledgement, or the online registration number.

Step 5 — Wait 30 days. The PIO must reply within 30 days under Section 7(1) of the RTI Act. The 48-hour life-and-liberty provision does not apply to subsidy queries. Mark the date on your calendar.

Step 6 — Escalate if needed. If no reply comes, or the reply is vague, file a First Appeal under Section 19(1) with the designated First Appellate Authority of the same OMC within 30 days of the expiry. If the FAA also fails, file a Second Appeal under Section 19(3) with the Central Information Commission within 90 days. There is no fee for a second appeal to the CIC. You can also file a Section 18 complaint directly if the PIO refused to accept the application.

1. Copy of your LPG booklet first page (showing consumer number, distributor code, LPG-ID)
2. Cash memos or SMS screenshots for the refills where subsidy is missing
3. Bank-statement extract for the relevant months showing no credit
4. Screenshot of MyLPG.in “subsidy status” page for your connection
5. Indian Postal Order for Rs.10 (or online payment receipt)
6. BPL certificate, if you are claiming the BPL fee exemption
7. Copy of any SMS received from the OMC about biometric authentication or income-limit

1. Filing RTI to the distributor. The distributor is a private agency, not a public authority. Route the application through the OMC Area Office, which holds the distributor's audit file as well as your transaction log.
2. Writing the full Aadhaar number. Only the seeding status is needed; the full number is unnecessary and a privacy risk. Ask for “Aadhaar-seeding status” instead.
3. Omitting the distributor code and LPG-ID. Without the 17-digit LPG-ID and distributor code the OMC cannot locate your record and will reply with “information not identifiable.”
4. Filing only to the Ministry. MoPNG sets policy but does not hold your refill UTRs. The OMC Area Office is the operational custodian. Filing only to the Ministry almost always gets you a forwarded, delayed, or empty reply.
5. Asking vague questions. “Give me LPG subsidy details” returns a brochure. Ask for named, dated records — the UTR for refill on [date], the seeding log, the BAA pause date.
6. Forgetting the 2026 BAA angle. If your subsidy paused after July 2026 and you do not ask about biometric authentication, you will get a reply that says “subsidy is being released as per eligibility” without revealing the real reason.
7. Missing the First Appeal window. Many citizens give up after a poor PIO reply. The First Appeal under Section 19(1) within 30 days is where most wrongful-withholding cases actually get fixed.

To,
The Central Public Information Officer,
[Indian Oil Corporation Ltd / Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd / Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd] — [Area Office],
[City, Pin Code]

Subject: Application under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, regarding my LPG subsidy under PAHAL/DBTL.

Sir/Madam,

I, [Full Name], an Indian citizen, holder of LPG Consumer Number [number] and 17-digit LPG-ID [number], with connection at [Full Address], Distributor Code [number], Distributor Name [name], submit this application for information under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.

Refill dates for which subsidy is in question: [date 1], [date 2], [date 3].
Bank account (last 4 digits) for DBTL: [xxxx].
Aadhaar-seeding status as known to me: [seeded / not seeded / unknown].

Please furnish the following information:

1. The refill-by-refill ledger for my LPG-ID for the last 12 months, with delivery date, cash-memo number, amount charged, and the subsidy UTR generated for each refill.
2. The Aadhaar-seeding and bank-account seeding status for my LPG-ID, with the date of the last successful seeding update and the name and IFSC of the seeded bank branch.
3. Whether biometric Aadhaar authentication (BAA) was pending for my LPG-ID as on 30 June 2026; if so, the exact date from which my subsidy was kept in abeyance under the MoPNG communication dated 18 May 2026, and whether the gap-period subsidy is marked lapsed or held.
4. If BAA has since been completed, the date of completion and the refill number from which subsidy was restored prospectively.
5. Whether subsidy was withheld under the Rs.10 lakh taxable-income exclusion notified on 28 December 2015; if so, the PAN/data source used, the date of the 7-day SMS dispute notice, and the notification number relied upon.
6. A certified copy of any Give-It-Up or opt-out declaration on record against my LPG-ID, with date and mode of submission, or a statement that no such declaration exists.
7. The contact details of the First Appellate Authority for this office.

I have enclosed Indian Postal Order No. [number] for Rs.10 towards the application fee.

I declare that I am an Indian citizen. The information sought concerns my own subsidy entitlement and may be disclosed to me under Section 6(3) read with Section 7(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.

Yours faithfully,
[Signature]
[Name]
[Full Address]
[Date]

Yes. IOCL, BPCL and HPCL are majority-owned by the Central Government and are “bodies owned or controlled and substantially financed” by it within the meaning of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. The Central Information Commission has repeatedly confirmed this, including in *Omprakash Kashiram v. BPCL* (2022) and *L. Gopalakrishnan v. IOCL* (2024). Being listed on the stock exchange does not change this status.

No. The distributor is a private agency and is not a public authority under Section 2(h). However, the OMC holds the distributor's audit file and your transaction log. File the RTI to the OMC Area Office; it can pull out both your record and any distributor-side entries.

In 2026 the most common cause is incomplete biometric Aadhaar authentication. The MoPNG communication dated 18 May 2026 set a deadline of 30 June 2026; consumers who had never completed BAA since getting their connection had their subsidy kept in abeyance after that date. The supply of cylinders is not stopped, only the subsidy. Completing eKYC through the IndianOil ONE, Hello BPCL or HP Pay app restores the subsidy prospectively, but arrears for the gap are not paid automatically.

Yes. It was notified by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas through a PIB release dated 28 December 2015, effective January 2016, and applies to a consumer or their spouse whose taxable income exceeded Rs.10 lakh in the previous financial year. From 2025-26 the OMCs are cross-referencing the LPG subscriber database with PAN/Aadhaar-linked Income Tax data, and affected consumers get an SMS with a 7-day window to dispute before the subsidy is discontinued. Your RTI can ask for the PAN/data source used and the date of the SMS.

This is the classic “pass-the-buck” deadlock. The OMC's transaction log resolves it: if a UTR was generated, the failure is at the bank or NPCI; if no UTR was generated, the failure is at the OMC (typically seeding, BAA or income-limit). Ask the PIO specifically for the UTR for each refill in question. The UTR is the single piece of evidence that tells you which side is wrong.

For the biometric-authentication pause, the government's position is that subsidy is restored only prospectively and arrears are not paid. However, if the pause was wrongful — for example, your BAA was actually completed before the deadline but the OMC failed to update its record — a First Appeal under Section 19(1) and a parallel complaint on the PNGRB Integrated Grievance Management System can recover the withheld amount. The real-life example above illustrates this path.

No. Writing the full Aadhaar number is unnecessary and a privacy mistake. Ask only for the “Aadhaar-seeding status” and the date of the last update. The OMC can locate your record using the 17-digit LPG-ID and distributor code.

The fee is Rs.10 per application under the Central RTI Rules, payable by Indian Postal Order, court-fee stamp, cash against receipt, or online payment. File online through the Central RTI portal at rtionline.gov.in and route the application to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, which will forward it to the OMC. BPL applicants are exempt from the fee on producing a BPL certificate.

Log a grievance on MyLPG.in or the PNGRB Integrated Grievance Management System at eportal.pngrb.gov.in/consumerweb — both generate a docket number you can quote in your RTI. The PNGRB IGMS resolves LPG service complaints within 7 working days and safety/leakage complaints within 24 hours. You can also escalate through CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in, which routes to MoPNG. The 1906 number is only for LPG leakage emergencies, not general grievances.

This guide covers the subsidy transaction log — why money is not crediting and how to extract the UTR and pause record. The Ujjwala connection RTI covers getting a connection in the first place — eligibility, waiting list, deposit, KYC. If your issue is that you applied for Ujjwala and were refused, see Ujjwala connection rejected? RTI to the Oil Marketing Company. If your issue is that you have the connection but the subsidy is not coming, you are on the right page.

1. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas — PAHAL scheme page: https://mopng.gov.in/en/marketing/pahal
2. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas — Emergency Helpline 1906: https://mopng.gov.in/en/marketing/emergency-helpline
3. MyLPG.in unified citizen portal: https://pmuy.gov.in/mylpg.html
4. PIB — Give-It-Up and Rs.10 lakh income-limit notification, 28 December 2015 (Release 133955): https://www.pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=133955
5. Financial Express — Ujjwala subsidy Rs.300 on first 4 cylinders, cut from 9 (June 2026): https://www.financialexpress.com/policy/economy/ujjwala-beneficiaries-to-now-get-rs-300-lpg-subsidy-on-first-4-cylinders-annually-down-from-9/4262326/
6. The Hindu — Pause LPG subsidy for users not completing biometric Aadhaar authentication by 30 June 2026: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/pause-lpg-subsidy-for-users-not-completing-biometric-aadhaar-authentication-by-june-30/article71106010.ece
7. Business Today — LPG subsidy to be discontinued in 7 days if taxable income exceeds Rs.10 lakh (2025-26 enforcement): https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/economy/story/lpg-subsidy-to-be-discontinued-in-7-days-if-family-taxable-income-exceeds-rs10-lakh-530983-2026-05-12
8. CIC — Omprakash Kashiram v. BPCL, 21 January 2022: http://indiankanoon.org/doc/180638324/
9. CIC — Shek Rafikul v. BPCL, 15 September 2022: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/189321654/
10. CIC — L. Gopalakrishnan v. IOCL, 9 September 2024: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/81193569/
11. PNGRB Integrated Grievance Management System: https://eportal.pngrb.gov.in/consumerweb/
12. CPGRAMS: https://pgportal.gov.in/
13. Central RTI online portal: https://rtionline.gov.in

1. RTI for Ujjwala connection
2. RTI for Money, Schemes and Subsidies
3. RTI for PM-KISAN installment
4. RTI for Aadhaar update
5. RTI for government scheme delay
6. RTI for income tax refund

If you would rather not write the application by hand, use our free tools:

1. AI RTI draft app — describe your subsidy problem in plain language and get a ready-to-file Section 6(1) application with your details filled in: https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/ai-rti-draft-app.html
2. PIO reply checker — paste the OMC's reply and see whether it actually answers your questions or wrongly invokes an exemption: https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/pio-reply-checker-app.html
3. First appeal app — turn a poor PIO reply into a Section 19(1) First Appeal in minutes: https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/first-appeal-app.html
4. Timeline calculator — compute your 30-day, First Appeal and Second Appeal deadlines precisely: https://righttoinformation.wiki/tools/timeline-calculator-app.html

Last reviewed: 4 July 2026.