Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) has conducted a pilot study to tag cylinders with QR codes at its Madanpur Khadar Bottling Plant, Delhi. It has been approved by Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) for a period of three months starting 01.09.2022 for the Madanpur Khadar Bottling plant to fill QR-coded LPG cylinders and ship to only two distributors in Delhi market. Following that, PESO extended the permission for 3 more months, until 28.02.2023. The initiative has the potential to solve issues like pilferage, tracking and tracing, and better inventory management. IOCL has sent total 23,827 such QR tagged 14.2 Kg LPG cylinders to these distributors till 27.11.2022.
Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies(OMCs) have taken several steps to prevent pilferage/supply of underweight cylinders to LPG consumers, which inter-alia include, random weight checking of filled cylinders at bottling plant, sealing of cylinders with Tamper Evident Seal, Statistical Quality Control on 10 % cylinders received from bottling plant, pre-delivery checks of cylinders, carrying portable weighing scales by delivery persons, random checks by OMC officials at go-down/delivery points/en-route, organizing public awareness campaigns etc.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Shri Rameswar Teli in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.