Reduce GST on LPG hose pipes to five per cent, demands All India LPG Distributors Federation

All India LPG Distributors Federation president Chandra Prakash on Wednesday demanded that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the protective hose (a rubber pipe) for the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) connections be reduced to five per cent.
Prakash said that the poor, especially those who remain beneficiaries of Ujjwala Yojana, would only be able to afford the protective hose for the LPG connection if prices are lower.
“Poor people, unaware of the quality of the product, buy the cheaper product from the market. Beneficiaries of the Ujjwala scheme need protective hoses the most, but they will be able to afford them only if the price is lower. Because of the 18 per cent GST on it, the price increases significantly. Our demand is that the GST be reduced to 5 per cent,” Prakash told ANI.
He further flagged the issue of “some people” making cheap copies and selling them.
“The most sensitive part of an LPG connection is the protective hose, which is commonly called the rubber pipe. It is the oil companies that decide the price of the protective hose. It has been seen in the market that some people have made cheap copies of it and are selling them. The original product is available only with authorised distributors,” Prakash said.
The All India LPG Distributors Federation has appealed to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to reduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on LPG Suraksha Hoses (LPG pipes) from 18 per cent to 5 per cent.
In the run-up to the two-day GST Council meeting that started today, the Federation had written to the Union Minister.
In the letter, the Federation had stressed that the LPG Suraksha Hose is not a luxury product but a mandatory safety component essential for transporting gas safely from cylinders to stoves.
“As LPG is already under essential commodities and distributed under subsidy schemes to millions of families, imposing such a high GST on a safety accessory is contradictory to the government’s vision of ‘Ujjwala se Suraksha’,” the letter read.
Since August 2015, every household using LPG is required to replace these hoses periodically as per Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) guidelines.
Currently, the 18 per cent GST rate makes these safety hoses costly for many families, especially economically weaker households, rural consumers, and beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), they argued.
According to the Federation’s President Chandra Prakash, lowering the GST to 5 per cent would not reduce tax revenue; instead, it could increase it, as more consumers would purchase authorised BIS-approved hoses rather than cheaper, unsafe alternatives from the open market.
“We assured you that total GST on Suraksha hose will also increase because now a days majority consumers purchasing substandard LPG pipe-Suraksha Hose from open unauthorized market hence loss of GST revenue. We assured yourself that LPG user will buy from oil companies authorized channels partners if GST reduces to 5 per cent instead of 18 per cent,” the letter read.
“This small fiscal step will have a large social impact by strengthening household safety and supporting the government’s vision of Har Ghar Surakshit LPG,” Prakash said in the letter.
In the Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced upcoming next-gen GST reforms before Diwali so as to benefit consumers, small industries and MSMEs

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