Launch of 5 Kg LPG Cylinder Sale through COCO ROs in Hyderabad

December 5th, 2013 

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas today launched the sale of 5 Kg cylinders through COCO ROs in Hyderabad. A novel scheme of sale of 5 kg LPG cylinders at market price with minimal documentation through Company Owned Retail Outlets (Petrol Stations) was earlier launched on 5th October’13 by the Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum Dr. M. Veerappa Moily in the cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkatta and Mumbai.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas today launched the sale of 5 Kg cylinders through COCO ROs in Hyderabad. A novel scheme of sale of 5 kg LPG cylinders at market price with minimal documentation through Company Owned Retail Outlets (Petrol Stations) was earlier launched on 5th October’13 by the Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum Dr. M. Veerappa Moily in the cities of Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkatta and Mumbai.

5 Kg Sale through COCO ROs

Presently, OMCs are marketing LPG filled cylinders to various customers through LPG distributor network all over India from their own LPG bottling Plants supplied to the Distributors godown. All such customers are being enrolled by collecting Proof of Identity (POI), Proof of Address (POA) and a deposit for the cylinder and regulator and in turn issuing a Subscription Voucher thereby loaning the equipment to the customer in lieu of the deposit received. Such customers are registered into OMC database as customers and subsequent refills are issued to only such customers who place their booking against the above customer number. The cylinder is home delivered by our LPG distributor in case of our regular distributors and in case of RGGLV it is on Cash and Carry basis.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas today launched the sale of 5 Kg cylinders through COCO ROs in Hyderabad.

There is an emerging segment of new consumers like IT professionals, BPO employees who want LPG but in absence of proper proof of address (POA) cannot access the same. Further, because of their highly irregular work timings, they may not be able to visit the distributor or be at home to receive cylinders during normal working hours. For some consumers, the need is in small parcels or arises at odd times of the day when distributors may be closed.

This initiative allows sale of 5 kg LPG cylinders at market price with merely any Proof of Identity (POI) through Company Owned Retail Outlets (Petrol Stations) to attend to demand of such consumers. The Sale of 5 kg cylinders will be done (Equipment + Product) at Non Domestic rates with /without regulator for the first time by charging Rs. 1655 (inclusive of applicable taxes) for the cylinder and Rs. 262.50 (inclusive of applicable taxes) for regulator. Subsequently, customers can purchase refill (cost of LPG only) at Rs 510 (inclusive of applicable taxes) as per current non domestic rates applicable in the market.

This scheme is expected to be a boon to migratory population such as students, IT professionals, BPO employees and persons with odd duty timings as it would provide them the flexibility to pick up cylinders and obtain subsequent refills at time of their choice as Petrol Stations are open for longer hours. This scheme is running successfully for two month in the cities of Kolkata, Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore on a pilot basis. Upon completion of the pilot, the facility would be extended to other towns and cities also.

Outlets covered in the city of Hyderabad would be HPCL COCO Outlet at NSIC Khusaiguda, IOCL COCO outlet at SP Road, Begampet and BPCL outlets at Lalitha Fuel Point, Raidurg (Entrance to IT HUB) and Cyberabad Filling Station, Hitech city. Once we begin with these four outlets, a few more are expected to be added soon.