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By Rajkamal Rao
Go back to "The first 90 days"
Indian families rely heavily on gas for cooking. Unlike in the west, most cooking gas is not reticulated - that is gas is not piped to each home through a centralized distribution system. Instead, gas is sealed into 14.2 Kg LPG cylinders by the gas company and is shipped to each kitchen, where the cylinder is physically connected to a cooking range or stove. As the cylinder runs out, the gas company ships out a refill, usually within a week. To manage the delay during this lead time, most households have a backup gas cylinder which is connected to the stove as soon as the main cylinder runs out.
Cooking gas is heavily subsidized by the Indian government and the subsidy has caused a huge dent in its budget. In September 2012, the government announced limiting these subsidies to six cylinders a year, per household, under the assumption that each cylinder lasts about 2 months. This was later relaxed to nine cylinders per year.
Getting a cooking gas connection can be needlessly cumbersome. Gas is distributed by state-owned gas companies such as Indane and Bharath Gas to a network of private dealers which is responsible for operating the last link of the supply chain. These private dealerships are also the customer interface - and so, all applications for new gas connections are processed through these dealers.
Every application must include a valid email address and telephone number; a valid photo ID and proof of address. If the address on your driver’s license is different from that of the home you plan to live in, you will need to provide home-ownership papers or a lease document to prove that you intend to live at this different address. And you must provide a notarized affidavit that your household does not have a prior LPG/PNG connection. These affidavits are available standard with the dealer - and for a small fee of less than INR 200, the dealer will have a notarized statement ready in a few days. It is not uncommon for the notary to have never met you and to have signed it several days before you do. Clearly, this last affidavit is worthless but the Indian Government continues to hold on to such British-style bureaucratic processes.
Once the application is approved and you are in the system, technology of the modern Indian commercial enterprise takes over. For example, ordering cylinder refills is incredibly easy, fast and efficient.
One Indane gas agency requires you to call a phone number from your registered home phone number. The system will automatically recognize your Indane customer number. All you do is press 1 for a refill. The automated system will instantly give you an order reference number, and the order should be delivered to your home in 2-3 days!
A Bharatgas agency has implemented an “order by SMS” system. First, you register for SMS reorders by sending the gas agency a message in the format, “REG Distributor_code Consumer_Number”. [For example, this could be REG 100537 55754288]. You instantly get a confirmation message on your phone that you are registered for SMS reorders. Registering is a one-time process and even this is automated! Then, and for all future refills, you send a SMS message with the words “LPG”. That’s it. You will instantly get confirmation of a booking reference number, and the order will be delivered in 2-3 days.
Go back to "The first 90 days"
Indian families rely heavily on gas for cooking. Unlike in the west, most cooking gas is not reticulated - that is gas is not piped to each home through a centralized distribution system. Instead, gas is sealed into 14.2 Kg LPG cylinders by the gas company and is shipped to each kitchen, where the cylinder is physically connected to a cooking range or stove. As the cylinder runs out, the gas company ships out a refill, usually within a week. To manage the delay during this lead time, most households have a backup gas cylinder which is connected to the stove as soon as the main cylinder runs out.
Cooking gas is heavily subsidized by the Indian government and the subsidy has caused a huge dent in its budget. In September 2012, the government announced limiting these subsidies to six cylinders a year, per household, under the assumption that each cylinder lasts about 2 months. This was later relaxed to nine cylinders per year.
Getting a cooking gas connection can be needlessly cumbersome. Gas is distributed by state-owned gas companies such as Indane and Bharath Gas to a network of private dealers which is responsible for operating the last link of the supply chain. These private dealerships are also the customer interface - and so, all applications for new gas connections are processed through these dealers.
Every application must include a valid email address and telephone number; a valid photo ID and proof of address. If the address on your driver’s license is different from that of the home you plan to live in, you will need to provide home-ownership papers or a lease document to prove that you intend to live at this different address. And you must provide a notarized affidavit that your household does not have a prior LPG/PNG connection. These affidavits are available standard with the dealer - and for a small fee of less than INR 200, the dealer will have a notarized statement ready in a few days. It is not uncommon for the notary to have never met you and to have signed it several days before you do. Clearly, this last affidavit is worthless but the Indian Government continues to hold on to such British-style bureaucratic processes.
Once the application is approved and you are in the system, technology of the modern Indian commercial enterprise takes over. For example, ordering cylinder refills is incredibly easy, fast and efficient.
One Indane gas agency requires you to call a phone number from your registered home phone number. The system will automatically recognize your Indane customer number. All you do is press 1 for a refill. The automated system will instantly give you an order reference number, and the order should be delivered to your home in 2-3 days!
A Bharatgas agency has implemented an “order by SMS” system. First, you register for SMS reorders by sending the gas agency a message in the format, “REG Distributor_code Consumer_Number”. [For example, this could be REG 100537 55754288]. You instantly get a confirmation message on your phone that you are registered for SMS reorders. Registering is a one-time process and even this is automated! Then, and for all future refills, you send a SMS message with the words “LPG”. That’s it. You will instantly get confirmation of a booking reference number, and the order will be delivered in 2-3 days.
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