Just days before the Election Commission announces the dates for the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, the Modi government has cut non-subsidised LPG price by Rs 100 per cylinder.

A 14.2 kg cylinder will cost Rs 829 in Calcutta. The hike would be be effective from Friday night, officials said. Prices vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes.

The reduction has been made possible because of the easing of international oil and gas prices, against which domestic fuel rates are benchmarked.

However, no change in petrol and diesel prices was announced. Petrol and diesel prices continue to be on freeze for a record 23 months now.

All LPG consumers in the country buy cooking gas at non-subsidised prices. Some like the poor women who got free connections under the Ujjwala Yojana and consumers in remote and far-flung areas are paid a fixed amount of subsidy per refill in their bank accounts.

Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale questioned the timing and said, why the prices were not reduced in the last seven months. "If the Modi Govt could afford to reduce LPG prices all this while, why wasn’t it done for the last 7 months?" the Trinamool leader questioned.

This is the second reduction in cooking gas prices in six months. Rates were cut by Rs 200 per cylinder in late August ahead of the assembly elections in five states, including Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

That revision brought down the prices from a nine-year high of Rs 1,103 per 14.2-kg cylinder to Rs 903 and now the rate has been cut to Rs 803.

For the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), who get Rs 300 per cylinder subsidy, a 14.2-kg LPG cylinder will now cost Rs 503 in the national capital.

The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved the extension of Rs 300 per LPG cylinder subsidy in Ujjwala Yojana for another one year to March 2025.

General elections are due in April-May. Cooking gas prices had shot up in the last couple of years and had become a major election issue. Rates went up Rs 294 per 14.2-kg cylinder between July 2021 and August 2023.

While Ujjwala beneficiaries are about 10 crore, there are over 33 crore domestic cooking gas users in the country.