The government on Saturday announced that starting October 1, 2026, domestic LPG consumers will need to have completed Biometric Aadhaar Authentication (BAA) to book refills at the regulated Retail Selling Price (RSP) with applicable subsidy.
The step will ensure that subsidised LPG reaches only genuine and deserving households. “Linking each connection to the Aadhaar-authenticated consumer helps prevent diversion of subsidised domestic cylinders for commercial and industrial use, removes duplicate and ineligible connections, and makes subsidy delivery transparent and targeted,” the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) said in a statement.
It added that the process is not meant to deny LPG to any genuine household, and every eligible consumer has several easy ways to complete it. Starting October 1, consumers who have already completed BAA do not need to do it again and their refills will continue as before. However, for consumers who have not completed BAA, refill booking at RSP with subsidy will be enabled once authentication is completed.
Consumers can complete BAA during refill delivery or at the distributor’s showroom. They can also complete the process on the oil marketing companies’ mobile applications.
“Consumers who are unwilling or unable to complete BAA can still receive LPG. They will need to register this choice on their OMC’s digital channels: the consumer web portal, mobile app, WhatsApp chatbot, IVRS or other available channels. These consumers will be supplied LPG at the applicable market price, without any subsidy, in 5 kg or 10 kg cylinders, subject to local availability with the OMC,” the ministry said.
It added that 27.43 crore active domestic LPG consumers have completed BAA, a coverage of 89.9 per cent, as of September 19, 2026. Consumers were first asked to complete BAA by June 30, 2026. The deadline was extended several times to give consumers more time: to July 31, August 7, August 15, August 23, August 31, September 7 and finally September 14, 2026.
Since October 2023, the OMCs have run a nationwide outreach drive, with more than 12 crore SMS and WhatsApp messages sent for the purpose. Distributors and delivery staff have followed up individually with consumers yet to authenticate.
The ministry said domestic LPG is sold below cost and the implicit subsidy for September 2026 is around ₹210 per 14.2 kg cylinder. In June 2026, it had reached ₹721 per cylinder.
In order to keep domestic LPG affordable, the government paid OMCs compensation of ₹22,000 crore in FY23 and is paying ₹30,000 crore during FY26 and FY27. Even after this, accumulated under-recoveries of public sector OMCs on domestic LPG exceeded ₹62,000 crore as of August 31, 2026. According to the government, directing the subsidy only to genuine consumers is essential to sustaining it.