Why the same gas cylinder costs ₹118 more in Srinagar than in Noida

A 14.2 kg domestic gas cylinder is the most standardised thing you can buy in India. Same weight, same gas, same three companies, sold from a list price the oil marketing companies publish. It ought to cost the same everywhere.

It does not. On 25 September 2026 we recorded the domestic cylinder price in 54 Indian cities and found 42 different prices.

	City	Cylinder
Cheapest	Ghaziabad, Noida, Meerut	₹939.50
Dearest	Srinagar	₹1,058.00
National median	—	₹958.50

A spread of ₹118.50, or 12.6% of the median. A household refilling once a month pays ₹1,422 more a year in Srinagar than in Noida for the identical cylinder.

The ladder, by state

Cheapest states	Cylinder	Dearest states	Cylinder
Delhi	₹942.00	Jammu and Kashmir	₹1,058.00
Karnataka	₹944.50	Bihar	₹1,031.50
Rajasthan	₹947.50	Chhattisgarh	₹1,013.00
Gujarat	₹947.88	Jharkhand	₹999.50
Kerala	₹949.75	Telangana	₹994.00

Look at that list of dear states: Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand. Now the cheap ones: Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat, Kerala. Three of the four cheapest touch a coast or a port; three of the four dearest are landlocked and far from one.

That is the whole explanation, and it is not tax.

The surprise: it varies inside a state

This is where the cylinder behaves differently from petrol, and it is the finding worth the post.

We measured the spread within single states — cities that share the same state government and therefore the same state tax:

	Median spread within a state	As a share of the national spread
LPG cylinder	₹16.00	14%
Petrol	₹0.70	4%

And the worst cases are not close:

State	LPG range	Gap
Madhya Pradesh	Bhopal ₹947.50 → Gwalior ₹1,025.50	₹78.00
Uttar Pradesh	Ghaziabad ₹939.50 → Varanasi ₹1,005.50	₹66.00
Maharashtra	Mumbai ₹941.50 → Nagpur ₹993.50	₹52.00

Uttar Pradesh in full is a geography lesson:

City	Cylinder
Ghaziabad	₹939.50
Noida	₹939.50
Meerut	₹939.50
Kanpur	₹941.50
Agra	₹954.50
Lucknow	₹979.50
Prayagraj	₹994.50
Varanasi	₹1,005.50

One state, one tax rate, one set of oil companies — and ₹66 between the west of it and the east. The prices rise almost perfectly with distance from Delhi.

Compare that with petrol, where the same measurement gives a median within-state spread of 70 paise. Petrol's variation is a tax story: it happens at state borders, because each state sets its own VAT, as we covered in our post on fuel prices across states. The cylinder's variation is a distance story, and it happens continuously across the map.

Why distance costs so much on a cylinder

A cylinder is a heavy steel object holding 14.2 kg of gas. Getting it to you involves:

Bottling. LPG arrives at import terminals or refineries and is filled into cylinders at bottling plants. There are a fixed number of these, concentrated near supply.

Trucking, to the distributor. This is charged as a freight component that rises with the distance from the bottling plant to the distributor's godown. It is the single reason Varanasi pays more than Ghaziabad.

Terrain. Srinagar is not merely far; it is reached over mountain roads with a season. Hill and border regions carry the highest delivery cost in the country, which is exactly where our dearest prices are.

State tax. Real, but a smaller share of the cylinder than of a litre of petrol — which is why the within-state spread survives at all.

The price you pay is a national list price plus a local delivery cost. Petrol is the opposite arrangement: a national base plus a state tax. Two different structures, two different maps.

What you can actually do about it

Honestly: less than with petrol. You cannot drive to the next state to buy a cylinder, and the delivery charge is exactly the thing you would be trying to avoid. But three things are worth knowing.

Check whether you are eligible for the PMUY subsidy. Ujjwala beneficiaries receive a per-cylinder subsidy credited to the bank account linked to the connection. If you qualify and are not receiving it, that is worth far more than any price difference in this post. Verify on your distributor's or the oil company's own portal.

Check that the subsidy is actually arriving. Transfers go to the linked account, and a stale or unlinked account silently stops them. Look at the statement, not the assumption.

Know the difference between the list price and what you paid. A domestic cylinder has a published price for your city. Delivery within the standard distance is included in it. If your bill exceeds the published price for your city, ask what the extra is for — and the answer should be a line item, not a shrug.

You can see today's cylinder price for every city we track on our LPG page, and the same for petrol, diesel and CNG.

The general lesson

Three of our fuels vary by state tax. One varies by distance. It is the same question — "why does this cost more here?" — with two completely different answers, and you cannot tell which is which without measuring.

That is most of what a rate page cannot tell you and why we keep the history.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the LPG cylinder price different in different cities? Because the published price for each city includes the cost of getting the cylinder there. Bottling plants are concentrated near refineries and ports, so a city far from one pays more freight. State tax adds to it, but distance is the bigger factor for a cylinder.

Which city has the cheapest gas cylinder? In our 25 September 2026 data, Ghaziabad, Noida and Meerut at ₹939.50, with Delhi at ₹942. The dearest was Srinagar at ₹1,058.

How much does the price vary across India? ₹118.50 between the cheapest and dearest of the 54 cities we track — 12.6% of the median price of ₹958.50. Across 12 refills that is ₹1,422 a year.

Why do two cities in the same state charge different amounts? Because they are different distances from the bottling plant. Uttar Pradesh spans ₹66 from Ghaziabad to Varanasi despite one state tax rate. For petrol the same measurement gives a median gap of only 70 paise within a state.

How often does the cylinder price change? Oil marketing companies revise domestic LPG prices monthly, unlike petrol and diesel which are revised daily.

Is the subsidy included in the price I pay? No. Eligible households pay the full price at delivery and receive the subsidy separately in the linked bank account. If it is not arriving, check that the account linked to the connection is current.

Prices are those we recorded on 25 September 2026 across 54 cities and will have changed since. Domestic LPG is revised monthly, so these figures hold for a while but not indefinitely — the LPG page carries the current number for your city.