The International Institute of Sustainable Development has published a study - "Subsidies for Liquefied Petroleum Gas in India: An Overview of Recent Reforms", March 2014. Mr. Bimal Jalan, I hope you read this document, and the other posts about LPG in this forum. http://www.iisd.org/gsi/sites/default/files/ffs_india_lpg_overview_2014.pdf

Recommended action: To encourage people to use LPG economically, the first four cylinders should be charged at Rs. 400, next four at Rs. 500 and the last four cylinders at Rs. 600. This will provide an incentive to economize without increasing the total subsidy to be provided by the government.

Recommended action: All customers to provide declarations that their monthly income is Rs.30,000 or less, to be eligible for subsidized cylinders. Others should pay the normal cost.

The Rs.40K Crores subsidy for LPG gas cylinders helps only those who do not need the subsidy. All Central / State government employees & pensioners are fully compensated for inflation; as on 01-01-2014 this is 100%, and there is no justification for them to get the subsidy. Nor is it necessary for private & public sector employees who earn more than Rs. 30,000 per month. Only households earning less than Rs. 30,000 / month should be eligible for the subsidy for gas cylinders.

Government is planning to set up new smart cities. I request the existing 100 cities which is having scarcity of infrastructure must be made internationally renowned architecture as well as infrastructure development must be appointed. Government must talk to all the state government to increase FSI in all cities. FSI limits must be raised to 5. Clustered development must be given priority. Each and every city must have at least 100 building above 60 floor.

There must be strict time frame for any procedure concerning monetary transactions of any kind (procurement, payment, funds allocation etc.) by the government; Time duration decided upon must be short and strictly adhered to; There must be transparency and accountability with regards to procurements and payments; Penalty fines must be established for delay.

Government must encourage digital communication and exchange of information. i.e. sharing of PO’s, Invoices etc through e mails must be legally binding. There need not be insistence on hard copies for everything. This way government cannot also claim that they did not receive the hard copy or that the file is yet to be received from another department and hence there is a delay etc. Digital communication will speed up procedures and bring about greater transparency.

Penalty for delays in decision making: Unless there are penalties, no official will consider time durations seriously. If there are penalties and genuine issues in timely decision making, the official accountable and liable for penalty will at least come up with solutions for timely decision making and take corrective measures if he/she foresees delays.

The Government must introspect on the following: a]Does it really need multiple tiers or officers for coming up with a decision? b]Shouldn’t the final decision making officer be accountable for timely decisions?Often one hears bottlenecks in decision making because there is only one decision maker on top getting feedback from several junior officers.This bottleneck must be eliminated and greater decision making power must be given at lower tiers itself & it MUST be coupled with accountability.

“Quality as well as price” must be the criteria and not price alone. In many tenders only L1 (term to denote lowest bidder) wins purely because of price. Although others might have quoted higher prices, their products may be more robust and technically superior. Price alone criteria is a lazy way of procuring. Technical superiority must be more important. It will encourage vendors to offer quality products and promote healthy competition.