PMUY set to be streamlined with e-KYC

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, May 4: Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) is set to be streaml-ined and its beneficiaries would be required to submit e-KYC.
PMUY was launched by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas as a flagship programme on May 1, 2016.
This flagship project was launched with the primary objective of replacing cow dung, coal and firewood by LPG so as to reduce the health hazards and environmental pollution associated with the first set of fuels.
However, there are several anomalies such as non-receipt of subsidies at the bank accounts of PMUY beneficiaries, enjoying benefits of the scheme by non-deserving or ineligible people and multiple LPG connections by PMUY beneficiaries.   
According to information received from IOCL’s Imphal Sales Office, multiple LPG connections by PMUY beneficiaries can be easily detected in the IOCL’s system even if the beneficiaries do not submit e-KYC.
It is said that e-KYC can help identify the loopholes, if there is any, for subsidies not reaching bank accounts of beneficiaries and remedy the same.
Moreover, e-KYC can identify and scrap those people who have been enjoying the benefits of PMUY even though they are not eligible for the scheme, sources said.
There are reports that many people not eligible for PMUY have been enjoying benefits of the scheme thereby wasting a huge amount of money from the Government exchequer.
For all these reasons, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has launched a new initiative under which all beneficiaries of PMUY would be required to submit e-KYC. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas may even strike out names of beneficiaries if they fail to submit e-KYC, said the sources. It is estimated that there may be around 15000 LPG customers under PMUY in Manipur and there are complaints of LPG subsidy not reaching the bank accounts of these customers. At the same time, there is a strong suspicion that many of these PMUY beneficiaries have multiple LPG connections. Meanwhile, LPG distributors have been instructed to start an e-KYC process for all beneficiaries, and the distributors have started the same process.