The Centre will from Monday allocate an additional 20 per cent commercial LPG to states for further distribution to migrant workers, restaurants, dhabas and subsidised canteens.The targeted allocation is meant to ease the pressure on commercial establishments engaged in food delivery and poor migrant workers who depend on 5-kg free trade LPG cylinders like Indane Chhotu and Bharatgas Mini.Conditions will, however, apply with the government mandating interested entities to register with oil marketing companies and also apply for piped natural gas (PNG) for an ultimate transition.With the new order today, commercial LPG allocation to states and UTs for further distribution will touch 50 per cent of the average monthly requirements. The decision was communicated to all state chief secretaries today by Union Petroleum Secretary Neeraj Mittal. In a letter to states he said, “This latest decision will take the overall allocation to 50 per cent of the pre-crisis level.”Earlier, the Centre announced commercial LPG allocations to states in two tranches–20 per cent average monthly requirement allotted to states, which are free to distribute the LPG to sectors as per local needs; and 10 per cent additional allocation for states facilitating a transition from LPG to PNG.The government, however, said today the 20 per cent commercial LPG allocation came on three conditions, including one that specifies which segments should get it. “The additional allocation of 20 per cent shall be given on priority to restaurants, dhabas, hotels, industrial canteens, food processing, dairy,subsidised canteens, outlets run by state governments or local bodies for food, community kitchens, 5-kg FTL for migrant labourers along with measures to ensure no diversion,” Mittal wrote to counterparts today.He added that all commercial and industrial LPG consumers would have to register with oil marketing companies before they could be eligible to be allotted any commercial LPG from the latest overall50 per cent allocation. Also, OMCs will register the customers who receive from the new 20 per cent allocation basket and keep a record of the sector they operate in the end-use of LPG and annual weight requirement of LPG of that customer in the respective database.”All commercial and industrial LPG consumers will have to apply for PNG with the city gas distribution (CGD) entity in their city as applicable and take all actions that will take them to a state of readiness for receiving PNG before they can be eligible to be allotted any commercial LPG from the overall 50% allocation,” the Centre said to states.Importantly, current PNG coverage in India is just 6 per cent with plans to take it up to 12 per cent. The Centre is asking all LPG consumers to shift to PNG. City gas distribution entities have also been advised to prioritise PNG connections for commercial establishments like restaurants, hotels and canteens to address concerns regarding the availability of commercial LPG.CGD firms like IGL, MGL, GAIL Gas and BPCL are offering incentives for taking domestic and Commercial PNG connections. Government officials said 13,479 MT of commercial LPG had been lifted during the last one week by commercial entities across states and UTs.”The supply of LPG is still a concern in view of the prevailing geopolitical situation. But there is no dry-out reported at LPG distributorships. The country is maintaining sufficient stocks of petrol and diesel and no cases of fuel dry-outs have been reported at any of the retail outlets by any OMC,” officials said today.They again appealed to the people not to resort to panic buying.