May 28, 2012. The government is about to launch a portal that will record deliveries of cooking gas cylinders to households, a move that officials say is directed towards restricting the supply of cylinders at subsidised rates. Officials said the portal would ensure consumers pay the market rate for refills over the prescribed limit. Officials said the idea is to cap subsidised cooking gas cylinders for each household at four in a year, adding that the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) reviewing prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas will take the final call on the limit. At present, there is no restriction on the number of refills supplied to a household. The market rate of a cooking gas cylinder is ' 879 in Delhi, but households pay only ' 399 as the rest is subsidised by the government. The oil ministry has already written to the cabinet secretariat to convene the EGoM but no date has been fixed yet, officials said. The EGoM was to meet soon after the Budget session, but the meeting was deferred following public uproar over the unprecedented ' 7.50 per litre hike in petrol rate recently, officials said. The government's rising fuel subsidy bill is a matter of concern for the Prime Minister's Office, which has now decided to directly monitor fuel prices. It has sought daily reports on fluctuations in petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas rates, officials said. The government sees restricting the supply of subsidised cooking gas cylinders as one of the measures to lighten its fuel subsidy burden. Cooking gas constitutes about a fourth of India's total fuel subsidy bill, which was ' 138,541 crore in 2011-12. Setting up of the portal is the first step towards a three-phase action plan suggested by the task force for targeted subsidy. In the first phase, the government will cap consumption of subsidized LPG. Cooking gas will be sold at market rates and the government will directly transfer subsidy to bank accounts of consumers in the second phase. In the final phase, the government will identify the poor, who would alone be eligible for cooking gas subsidy.