Oil marketing companies despite suffering huge losses in selling LPG cylinders are on an innovation path.HPCL & IOC Customers in Kerala would now be able to order a cylinder refill by just sending an SMS. The service launched by Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Jitin Prasada is already available in Delhi and would slowly be expanded across major cities.
How to Use the Service:
- For booking a refill, the customers have to register their mobile number with their distributors.
- The registration is done only once. One customer can register two mobile numbers against his/her LPG connection.
- The number of Indian Oil is 54625 and for Bharat Petroleum is 52725, for Vodafone, Idea, Tata and Airtel 57333 and all other telecom service users who are BharatGas customers in Kerala.
- To order a LPG refill a customer needs to Send: REG>space<distributorSAPcode< space>consumerNo
An IOC customer has to type distributor’s phone number instead of SAP code. The service could be useful as Customers would not have to make phone calls to book a refilling. Although the wide usability could be marred due to delay in delivery of cylinders as Now a days OMC’s take around 2-3 days to deliver a refill due to acute shortage and to avoid further losses in the business.
