Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – In response to a string of explosions involving three-kilogram liquid petroleum gas cylinders, the government is considering scrapping the subsidy on the canisters and replacing it with direct subsidies for the poor to purchase the cooking gas, officials said on Thursday.

The price disparity between the 3-kg cylinders and the commercial 12-kg cylinders has led unscrupulous traders to siphon the gas from the smaller canisters to fill the larger ones, said the coordinating minister for people's welfare, Agung Laksono.

The siphoning, done using needles and syringes, damages the canisters' valves and is now being blamed for the explosions, which have claimed at least seven lives and left scores injured. "I heard that there is a problem with illegal refills," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Thursday.

Yudhoyono ordered ministers to check the price disparity between the 12-kg and 3-kg cylinders, which are being distributed under a government program to encourage low-income households to switch from kerosene to cheaper LPG for cooking.

Yudhoyono also asked Vice President Boediono to chair a meeting, now scheduled for Monday, to discuss the problem and seek a solution.

Agung said some traders were taking advantage of the price difference to make a profit, in the process putting lives at risk. "The price disparity has prompted irresponsible people to engage in the illegal refilling process, destroying the valves of both the 3-kg and 12-kg canisters," he said.

Previously, the government said faulty rubber hoses and regulators on the cylinders were behind the explosions.

The 3-kg cylinders are sold for Rp 13,000 ($1.50) and the 12-kg ones cost Rp 76,000 to Rp 78,000, a difference of at least Rp 2,000 per kilogram of LPG.

Agung said police investigations had found many of the leaks in both the 3-kg and 12-kg canisters were due to illegal refilling, and that most of the explosions were caused by leaks brought on by the puncturing of the valves.

Last week the government announced it was recalling as many as nine million 3-kg cylinders that did not meet Indonesian National Standards, but Agung could not say how many of these were as a result of illegal refilling.

He said a single price for LPG, regardless of canister size, would be decided on in the meeting chaired by Boediono on Monday.

Karen Agustiawan, president director of state oil and gas company Pertamina, said she wanted an "economic gas price" of Rp 7,826 per kilogram. LPG is currently sold at between Rp 4,333 and Rp 6,333 a kilogram.

"Even applying the 'economic gas price,' it will still be cheaper than kerosene," she said. The government in June scrapped state subsidies on kerosene.

Both Karen and Agung said that to offset the effect of the price hikes on the poor the government would provide them with direct subsidies.

While Karen mentioned direct cash aid, Agung cited plans to issue vouchers for poor families to buy LPG. Agung also said the program to promote the use of LPG as a cooking fuel would continue.