IndianOil to weed out fake cylinder consumers
Patna   13-Jul-2008
In a bid to check the pilferage of gas cylinders, oil companies are creating a database of their customers through special software being supplied to distributors in Patna. The exercise, going on for the past few months, is likely to be completed soon. Officials of IndianOil, which has the maximum number of LPG consumers in Patna, believe the computerised data bank would help identify the fake ones to a great extent, as well as help the companies to keep a stock of the flow of cylinders in the market. Said an official source, "Customer base of each distributor runs up to 15,000 on average. But we have our own understanding that there is huge percentage of fake customers enlisted. We want to check that anomaly". That apart, oil companies like IndianOil would also be able to assess how many customers have got two to three or more gas connections (each connection provides two cylinders i.e. Double bottle connection) in their own name from distributors in various areas. More importantly, an IVRS system is likely to be introduced to replace the manual booking of gas cylinder against a connection by distributors. The system would not only help customers to book their gas on phone, internet but also provide them updates through SMS about the time and date of delivery of their cylinder from a godown of a distributor. "Customers often complaint that they receive the cylinder after 10 to 15 days of booking. Sometimes, there are reports of shortage. We will be able to check such anomalies once the IVRS system is introduced," said an officer of IndianOil.