New Delhi: The government on Monday said it is now distributing more domestic LPG cylinders, meeting the existing demand as well as clearing the backlog, indicating that panic buying has reduced and the availability of cooking gas has improved since March.Sujata Sharma, Joint Secretary, Petroleum Ministry, said that the delivery time of LPG cylinders from the date of booking has also improved.“Our (LPG cylinder) supply has exceeded bookings in the last few days. Efforts have been made to bring bookings and deliveries back to normal,” Sharma said. He said that oil marketing companies are clearing the backlog. He said LPG production at the refineries has been increased to about 50,000 tonnes per day to support domestic availability.While a little less than 1.7 crore refills were booked in the last four days, Sharma said gas distributors managed to supply six lakh more cylinders. He said that before the conflict, the delivery time for refills was two days from the date of booking, which increased to more than five days during the height of the Middle East conflict in March.“The backlog is continuously reducing and the delivery time has now come down to 4.5 days. The effort is to deliver more refills than booked,” he said.The government on Monday issued a notification allowing LPG customers to surrender their gas cylinder connection within 30 days of getting PNG connection or obtain a transfer voucher from the distributor to restore their connection in a non-PNG area if needed in future. This could benefit consumers with transferable jobs, migrant families, renters, students and families relocating to non-PNG areas.On reports of shortage at some retail pumps, Sharma said there is no shortage of fuel and both the government and oil retailers are closely monitoring the situation. “All retail outlets are being closely monitored at the level of oil marketing companies and the Petroleum Ministry. Any intermittent shortages are being addressed immediately, and stocks are being replenished at all retail outlets,” he said.The official said panic buying was seen at petrol pumps in parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, resulting in a 20-30% increase in demand due to multiple factors, including increase in agricultural consumption, bulk users buying from retail outlets due to price differentials and shifting of consumers from private pumps to state-owned oil retailers.The ministry said panic buying was partly driven by higher agricultural demand, bulk buying and consumers shifting from private fuel retailers to state-run stores due to price differentials.