Govt starts investigation into fuel subsidy scheme after 31,000 consumers miss relief

The government has initiated an investigation into the Prime Minister (PM) Fuel Subsidy Scheme after around 31,000 consumers reportedly failed to receive subsidised petrol, with expired tokens, registration errors and complaints about petrol stations among the issues identified.
The scheme offers eligible users of motorcycles, rickshaws, three-wheelers and small cars a discount of Rs100 per litre of petrol.
A government review has highlighted difficulties accessing the subsidy, prompting officials to contact affected consumers and examine petrol stations with low numbers of subsidy transactions.
Officials were informed that 10,344 fuel-relief tokens had expired before being redeemed.
According to the reported review, around 31,000 consumers whose tokens had expired were contacted to establish why they had not used them.
About 11,000 said they had not had enough time, while approximately 13,000 reported being refused service at petrol stations or experiencing technical problems.
Authorities plan to contact affected consumers again and encourage them to generate new tokens and try to redeem the subsidy.
The government’s 9771 helpline has received around 3,000 calls related to the scheme.
The reported complaints include 972 registration-related cases, 414 involving a mismatch in provincial information, 72 incomplete registrations and 250 duplicate registration attempts requiring verification.
Confusion over vehicle ownership requirements has also emerged.
Some consumers and petrol station staff reportedly believed that motorcycles had to be registered in the applicant’s name to qualify for the subsidy.
However, the ownership condition was relaxed for motorcycles and three-wheelers because some vehicles are used under open transfer letters or informal ownership arrangements.
For eligible cars with engine capacities of up to 800cc, the registered owner remains the qualifying applicant, according to the information provided.
Authorities are also examining whether petrol stations are processing subsidy transactions properly.
Around four million redemptions have reportedly been recorded across approximately 8,000 filling stations, an average of about 500 transactions per station.
The government has set a benchmark of 50 redemptions, with stations recording fewer than that figure due to face audits by provincial and district administrations.
Officials also plan to monitor stations handling unusually high transaction volumes and deploy additional devices where long queues occur.