You can now get a cash refund on your gas cylinder

Cooking gas cylinders at Heshima trading center in Nakuru town. [Kipsang Joseph/Standard]

Companies dealing in cooking gas will be compelled to refund consumers money paid as a deposit for gas cylinders. This is if consumers decide that they no longer want to use a particular brand.

This comes as laws abolishing a system that enabled consumers to buy Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) from any dealer regardless of the brand come into effect. The new laws might see some consumers stuck with cylinders of brands that they do not like, in which case the new regulations require firms that own the cylinders to reimburse the consumer and take back their cylinder.

The consumers will receive a refund of Sh2,170 for a 6kg cylinder and Sh3,588 for a 13kg cylinder, according to a notice published yesterday by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA).

The regulator on June 25 published the new LPG regulations that do away with the cylinder exchange pool that gave consumers ease of buying gas, which it attributed to the rise in illegal LPG refilling. “Cylinder brand owners are directed to comply with the transitional clauses provided in the legal notice,” said EPRA.

The LPG firms have now been banned from handling cylinders that they do not own but will have a six-month window to remit those that they received while the exchange pool was operational. “Cylinder brand owners are cautioned that the cylinder exchange that occurred after June 25 other than through approved mutual exchange system shall be classified as a breach to the legal notice 100 and stern measures shall be taken against the concern parties,” said EPRA.