India will require domestic liquefied petroleum gas customers to complete biometric Aadhaar authentication before booking refills at regulated retail prices from October 1. Consumers who have already completed the check will not need to repeat it.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas says 274.3 million consumers, or 89.9 percent of the domestic customer base, had completed verification by September 19. The requirement links access to regulated-price cylinders and any applicable subsidy to authentication against India’s national identity system.
Customers who remain unverified can complete the process through delivery personnel using their oil marketing company’s application, at a distributor showroom, or from home through a mobile app. The ministry lists IndianOil ONE for Indane customers, HelloBPCL for Bharatgas customers, and HP PAY for HP Gas customers.
Unverified customers will become eligible to book regulated-price refills after completing authentication. The original June 30 deadline was extended several times, most recently on September 14. Oil marketing companies have conducted verification outreach since October 2023, including more than 120 million messages to customers.
The policy does not prohibit all LPG purchases by people who decline or cannot complete biometric verification. Those customers can register that choice through their supplier’s website, mobile application, WhatsApp channel or interactive voice response system. They can then obtain unsubsidized 5-kilogram or 10-kilogram cylinders at market prices, subject to local availability.
Aadhaar authentication is also being expanded in other public-service processes. The Delhi High Court recently issued an interim direction requiring biometric Aadhaar checks for new Goods and Services Tax registrations, following cases involving allegedly stolen identity details. That separate order concerns tax registration rather than household fuel purchases.
The Unique Identification Authority of India has also released a native face-authentication software development kit for Android and iOS applications. It allows authorized organizations to keep facial capture within their own applications rather than transferring users to a separate app, with a sandbox for testing authentication journeys before deployment.
For LPG customers, the immediate requirement remains completion of the supplier’s Aadhaar verification process. Existing verified customers retain their eligibility without another check, while distributors and delivery staff remain available alongside the mobile route for customers completing authentication before their next regulated-price booking.
Sources: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
