Government sets October 1 deadline for LPG subsidy eligibility tied to Aadhaar verification.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas announced on September 19, 2026, that Biometric Aadhaar Authentication (BAA) will become mandatory nationwide from October 1, 2026, for domestic LPG consumers seeking refills at the regulated Retail Selling Price with applicable subsidy. The rule applies to connections under Indian Oil's Indane, Bharat Petroleum's Bharatgas, and Hindustan Petroleum's HP Gas.
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Scale of Compliance and Remaining Gap
According to the ministry, 27.43 crore active domestic LPG consumers, or 89.9 percent of the total, had already completed BAA as of September 19, 2026, and require no further action to keep receiving subsidised refills, as reported by the Times of India and Economic Times. The remaining roughly 10 percent of consumers had less than two weeks from the announcement date to authenticate before the October 1 deadline, the Press Information Bureau said in a release referenced as PRID 2312532.
Consumers who do not complete BAA will not be denied LPG cylinders outright. Instead, they will be supplied refills at market-determined, non-subsidised prices, according to the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, as cited by The Hindu. ZeeBiz reported that such consumers may still obtain 5-kg or 10-kg cylinders depending on local availability, but without any subsidy benefit.
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Authentication Process and Distributor-Level Implementation
The government has outlined multiple channels for completing BAA: doorstep verification during cylinder delivery using biometric devices carried by delivery personnel, in-person authentication at LPG distributor showrooms, and digital verification through OMC mobile applications including IndianOil ONE for Indane customers and Hello BPCL for Bharatgas customers, according to Mathrubhumi and the Times of India. Consumers unwilling or unable to complete BAA also have the option of submitting a written declaration to their distributor, after which they would receive refills only at market price without subsidy, The Hindu reported.
The Tribune reported that oil marketing companies had directed distributors to stop subsidised refills for non-BAA consumers, reflecting implementation pressure at the local level, though the ministry's official position, as stated in the PIB release, maintains that cylinder supply itself will not be stopped. The ministry has framed the policy as a measure to ensure subsidies reach genuine domestic households and to curb diversion of subsidised cylinders for commercial use.
