The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) strongly condemns the steep hike in the prices of domestic as well as commercial LPG cylinders and demands its immediate withdrawal. This price hike exposes the anti-people character of the government, which seeks to burden the people under the pretext of global tensions and war. The relentless increase in the price of one of the most essential household commodities - cooking gas - directly raises the daily household expenditure of millions of families, thereby eroding their consumption capacity and even affecting the food intake of a vast section of the Indian population.

Despite its tall claims of empowering women, the government has delivered the “gift” of yet another price hike in cooking gas to women - who still bear the primary responsibility of running households - on the very occasion of International Working Women’s Day, 8 March 2026. At a time when crores of working people are struggling with rising prices, joblessness, and declining real wages, the government has chosen to further increase the burden on household cooking fuel.

A hike of Rs. 60 in domestic LPG cylinders means that the price of a cylinder has now reached around Rs. 913 in Delhi. When the BJP came to power in 2014, the price of a domestic cylinder was around Rs. 410. Thus, over the last decade, the price of cooking gas has more than doubled, imposing a severe burden on working families.

In 2014–15, the Union government spent about ₹40,569 crore on LPG subsidy when India had around 18.19 crore LPG consumers (about 14.85 crore active consumers). In 2025–26, the number of LPG connections has increased to over 32–33 crore households, largely due to the expansion of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. However, the LPG subsidy allocation has fallen sharply to about ₹15,121 crore, showing that while the number of consumers has nearly doubled, government subsidy support has been drastically reduced and restricted mainly to Ujjwala beneficiaries. Even the poor households covered under the scheme have not been spared in this round of price hikes, exposing the hollowness of the government’s claims of concern for poor women.

The prices of commercial LPG cylinders have also been increased by more than Rs. 114.50. This increase will inevitably be passed on to consumers through higher prices of cooked food, restaurant services, and other essential services, further aggravating inflation for common people.

The Narendra Modi government is attempting to justify this hike by blaming the situation in West Asia. This argument is completely dishonest. When international crude oil prices collapsed during the pandemic and even briefly turned negative in April 2020, the government did not reduce LPG prices proportionately. Instead, it maintained high retail prices and used the opportunity to increase taxes and withdraw subsidies. This clearly exposes that LPG pricing under the present regime is driven not by the interests of consumers but by the objective of extracting revenue from the people.

India today consumes more than 33 million tonnes of LPG annually and imports nearly two-thirds of its requirement, making the country highly vulnerable to global market fluctuations. Instead of strengthening domestic energy security and protecting consumers through subsidies and public regulation, the government is trying to impose market-linked pricing that directly transfers global volatility to the kitchens of ordinary people.

The timing of this hike is also politically significant. With several state assembly elections approaching in the coming months, the government appears to be following its familiar tactic - imposing steep price hikes now and resorting to temporary and cosmetic reductions during election campaigns in order to mislead the electorate. The working people of the country must not be deceived by such opportunistic manoeuvres.

CITU demands the immediate withdrawal of the LPG price hike and the restoration of adequate subsidies on domestic cooking gas. CITU calls upon the working people of the country to come out in protest against this cruel imposition of the burden of economic crisis and war-driven global energy instability on the common people of our country.

Issued By
Sudip Dutta
President