After Arun Jaitley, AG Mukul Rohatgi and Piyush Goyal surrender LPG subsidy

NEW DELHI: A day after Arun Jaitley gave up his LPG subsidy , attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi and power minister Piyush Goyal followed suit on Saturday , even as oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan began a campaign to call one person in leadership position each day and urge them to give up the government dole.

Pradhan launched his campaign with Akhilesh Yadav, congratulating the UP chief minister for rapid progress in enrolment for Pahal or the revamped direct LPG benefit transfer scheme – in the state before requesting him to give up the subsidy.

Total enrolment – seeking bank account or Adhaar numbers with LPG consumer ID – has risen to 42% in UP from 11% in about two months since the process was launched.

Overall, about 1.5 lakh consumers are joining Pahal daily, notching a daily growth rate of 1%. About 50% of the 15.3 crore LPG consumers in the country are now on Pahal platform.

“The subsidy issue may not have registered with many people. Now that the government is highlighting the issue and finance minister Arun Jaitley has set an example, I am hopeful of a positive response,“ Pradhan told TOI. Pradhan himself had surrendered his subsidy in July last year.

That Jaitley's action was creating an impact was evident from Goyal's tweet, “Inspired by him, I am renouncing the LPG subsidy and urge all those who are economically well-off, to consider giving up the LPG subsidy too... This will ensure that our budgetary re sources are only spent on the most needy and deserving, and be a great step towards national service.“

“Volunteering to give up LPG subsidy amounts to contributing for national development and empowerment of poor people, who will be the beneficiary,“ Pradhan said in a renewed tweet on Friday.

The government hopes to save about Rs 7,500 crore in LPG subsidy , pegged at Rs 46,458 crore last fiscal, through Pahal with rougly 80% enrolment rate.

The Centre has already transferred Rs 1,260 crore into bank account of the consumers. The oil minister hoped to achieve the 75-80% enrolment by February . He also praised ministry officials for the successful rollout of Pahal, which has been successful till now.