New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs may consider raising the quota of subsidised LPG cylinder from nine to 12 per household at a meeting on Thursday.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had strongly pitched for raising the cap to 12 cylinders per household while addressing the AICC meet earlier this month. He also said there was a need to increase the quota to 12 cylinders.

Supporting the stance, Oil Minister M Veerappan Moily informed that the Cabinet was likely to consider hiking the quota of subsidised cooking gas cylinders from nine to 12 per household this week.

“After our vice president Rahul Gandhi said nine cylinders are not enough, I have moved a Cabinet note to increase the quota to 12. I think the Cabinet is likely to consider the proposal this week,” Moily had said.

Moily also informed that 89.2 percent of the 15 crore LPG consumers use up to nine cylinders in a year and only 10 percent have to buy the additional requirement at the market price.

If the quota is raised to 12, about 97 percent of the LPG consumers would be covered by subsidised LPG, he said.

Increasing the limit to 12 would result in an additional fuel subsidy burden of Rs 3,300 crore-4,000 crore. The government already incurs about Rs 46,000 crore per annum as LPG subsidy.

The government had initially capped the supply of subsidised domestic LPG cylinders to six per household annually in September 2012 in a bid to cut its subsidy bill. The quota was raised to nine in January 2013.

Consumers who have exhausted their quota have to buy LPG at the market price of Rs 1,258 per cylinder. Subsidised LPG costs Rs 414 per cylinder in Delhi.

Moily said the price of subsidised LPG hasn’t been raised even though international prices have gone up.