The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas announced on Saturday that from October 1, 2026 every LPG refill at the subsidised retail price will require biometric Aadhaar authentication. The move is intended to lock the subsidy into the hands of eligible households and cut the long‑running leak of cylinders to commercial users.
As of September 19, 27.43 crore domestic LPG customers—about 89.9 percent of the total—had already completed the biometric link. The remaining 3.32 crore accounts fall under a tight deadline.
Authentication can be done on delivery, at a distributor’s showroom or through the mobile apps of IndianOil ONE, HelloBPCL and HP PAY. If a consumer cannot provide biometric data, the system will still deliver LPG but at the prevailing market price.
The deadline has been pushed seven times since the original June 30 target, with the latest extension to September 14. Since October 2023 the government has sent more than 12 crore SMS and WhatsApp messages, organised special camps, and used IVRS prompts to reach users.
Fiscal incentives remain hefty: the implicit subsidy on a 14.2‑kg cylinder hovered at ₹210 in September 2026, compared with ₹721 in June. The government paid ₹22 000 crore to oil marketing companies in 2022‑23, and is paying ₹30 000 crore in both 2025‑26 and 2026‑27, while under‑recoveries topped ₹62 000 crore as of August 31, 2026.
The government will now enforce the authentication rule; consumers who fail to link their Aadhaar will lose subsidised pricing and will be charged the market rate from the date of the next refill. The Ministry urges the remaining 3.32 crore users to complete the process before October 1 or face a price hike.