LPG Price: Millions Hit Hard As Cooking Gas Cost Soars In India

 

"I'm always anxious when I light the kitchen stove these days. I have to make sure our gas cylinder lasts for at least two months," a woman in India's national capital Delhi told a colleague last week.

She cooks the day's meals in one go, as the family tries to make ends meet on her husband's monthly earnings of around 10,000 rupees ($129; £106).

The woman, who didn't want to be named, is among millions of Indians struggling to afford cooking gas cylinders - which use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - after a series of price hikes over the past year and a half. The most recent hike last week - of 50 rupees (0.65; £0.53) - led to the price of a 14.2 kilogram cylinder crossing 1,000 rupees in some parts of the country.

Cylinder prices have long been a hotly-debated political issue in India, with opposition parties - including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party before it came to power in 2014 - routinely taking to the streets to protest against hikes.

But the issue has become even more sensitive after the Covid pandemic, which suppressed incomes, caused job losses and exhausted savings.

- bbc.com