LPG hikes: A blow to working class

By Rachana Ramesh | NT

The price of domestic LPG cylinders has been hiked again by Rs 50. The domestic cylinder will cost Rs 1002.50 in Bengaluru from Saturday. In March, the price was increased by Rs 50 per cylinder. The latest hike in gas cylinder prices has once again forced the common man to bear the brunt of inflation.

The increase has burdened the working class to trim down their already shrinking monthly budget. “I remember times when I would pay Rs 350 for a cylinder, but now, with having to tip the workers a few tens, I have to resort to Rs 1,000 just for gas. As a daily wager, who works as a tailor for a living, I spend a major chunk of my salary on rent, and I do not know how to structure my budget anymore,” says Philomena, who takes on small tailoring projects along with a small group of women in Vijayanagar. “If I put my money into buying gas, I won’t have any left to secure ration, which is not any less expensive. What would I cook?” she remarked.

“While he takes the responsibility of paying the rent and having to educate our children, I am supposed to manage everything in the household,” says Bhuvaneshwari, a mother of two about her auto-driver husband who is the sole earning member of the family.

“We only have a single-cylinder at home and before I book another one, I come to see my purse empty,” she added. “Until recently, my husband was the only one who owned a basic phone. After months of cutting costs and saving from my household budget, I now have bought myself a basic phone too. There will be no money for saving or buying anymore,” she concluded. The price hike has left no room for leisure, luxury, savings or investment for the working class.

“I belong to the middle class and can afford hikes like these without having drastic changes in my budget, but it is people who belong to the lower-middle class and poorer sections that will really bear the consequences of such decisions,” says Kalpana, an employee at the Visveswaraya Technological Museum. With more than 70 per cent of Indian households using LPG as their primary cooking fuel and nearly 85 per cent having LPG connections, many have decided to cut back on consumption and switch to cheaper alternatives.

Tanisha, a degree student at MCC has recently moved out of her parent’s house and this had led her to have to cook for herself and her fellows at the PG.

“We use the induction plate and have to rely on electricity. It has its woes – not being able to cook up a meal if there is no power and having to buy food from outside. But a lot of PGs are doing the same because the cylinder gets used up too quickly and it’s much more expensive,” she said. LPG consumption had dropped 9.1 per cent month-on-month drop in consumption during April, following the price hike in March.