Cooking gas agencies in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana are receiving unusually high customer footfalls as the August 23 deadline for completing e-KYC or Aadhaar biometric authentication for domestic LPG connections draws near.

Messages from OMCs

Triggering the rush are presumably the messages from oil marketing companies (OMC) — Indian Oil Corporation, HPCL and BPCL — urging domestic liquefied petroleum gas consumers to complete e-KYC immediately to avoid disruption in LPG supply at domestic rate. “Your e-KYC is pending despite reminders... last date has been extended till 23.08.26 [from earlier August 16] after which you may not be eligible to receive LPG cylinders at domestic rates until your e-KYC is completed,” reads a message sent by one of the OMCs.

Issues people faced

The last minute scramble is consequently resulting in long queues and wait time as well as frayed tempers at several LPG distributorships. Compounding the situation are technical glitches, especially with the servers often taking longer time or unable to process.

Multiple sources involved in the exercise say the OMCs have stepped up efforts to ensure that all domestic LPG users complete the authentication process. The e-KYC or the process of authenticating the user with their Aadhaar is aimed at weeding out ghost consumers, or, in other words ensuring the refill reaches the intended user instead of being diverted.

Though subsidy on domestic LPG refills has dwindled over the years, barring PM Ujjwala Yojana and other government programme beneficiaries such as the Mahalakshmi scheme in Telangana, the exercise has nevertheless set off alarm bells among other households.

Official word awaited

Behind their concern is a reading between the lines with some interpreting that those e-KYC non-compliant will be supplied cylinders at commercial rates. Senior officials in the oil companies, who did not wish to be quoted, dismissed such fears as unfounded. There is no communication yet from the government on the pricing of cylinders for those not completing eKYC, they said.

An official said a chunk of customers have already authenticated themselves, many of those remaining are rushing to the distributorships. It is likely the deadline may be extended again, but unlikely all the connections will eventually be authenticated as some connections following the death of the users might have turned inactive, some users may have switched to pipeline or PNG connections and a few still may not be interested in completing the process.

“Some of the city distributors are handling 200-300 customers daily for the last few days,” Telangana LPG Distributors Association president Jagan Mohan Reddy says, adding usually only a handful visit either to transfer in or out a connection or seek a second cylinder.

Published - August 19, 2026 05:20 pm IST