Cooking Gas costlier by ₹60 nationwide, Delhi price now ₹913

Oil marketing companies on Saturday hiked domestic LPG prices by ₹60 , pushing the cost of a 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi to ₹913 . It is the second increase in under a year, following a ₹50 hike in April 2025.

The trigger is the escalating West Asia conflict. Since US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, tanker movement through the Strait of Hormuz has nearly halted, sending global energy prices into a spiral. Brent crude surged 28 per cent to USD 92.69 per barrel while Asian LNG prices tripled to a three-year high of USD 25.40 per MMBtu. India imports 85-90 per cent of its LPG from Gulf nations that depend entirely on the Strait for exports, making the price impact inevitable.

The hike hits the poor hardest. Over 10 crore Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries will now pay ₹613 per cylinder even after their ₹300 subsidy. Commercial LPG has also been raised by ₹114.50 to ₹1,883 per 19-kg cylinder in Delhi , a cumulative jump of over ₹307 in just three months, threatening to push up food costs across restaurants and dhabas.

While the ₹60 increase is uniform across the country, what consumers actually pay varies sharply from state to state owing to local taxes and VAT and the gap is striking. Jammu & Kashmir's remote districts bear the heaviest burden, with prices in areas like Kupwara crossing ₹1,045 per cylinder. Ladakh, already among India's most expensive regions for cooking gas, now sees prices between ₹1,020 and ₹1,040. Consumers in northeastern states such as Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram pay between ₹990 and ₹1,010. Among major southern metros, Hyderabad now pays ₹965 making Telangana one of the costlier states for cooking gas while Andhra Pradesh consumers in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam pay approximately ₹947 to ₹950. Kolkata residents face a bill of ₹939, Chennai ₹928.50, and at the lower end of the metro spectrum sit Delhi at ₹913 and Mumbai at ₹912.50.

The opposition came out swinging. "The Modi government has directly increased the price of domestic LPG by ₹60. Narendra Modi is continuously wielding the whip of inflation on the public," they said, labelling the Prime Minister 'Inflation Man Modi.' The attack resonates particularly in high-tax states like Telangana and in remote regions where cooking gas already costs over ₹1,000 a cylinder.

The government, meanwhile, invoked emergency powers to direct refineries to ramp up domestic LPG production, seeking to reduce import dependence as the crisis deepens.

With no ceasefire in sight and global energy markets still reeling, further price hikes cannot be ruled out. For families in Kupwara paying over ₹1,000 or in Hyderabad paying ₹965, that is not an abstract warning, it is the next bill coming due.