Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has deposited Tk 300 crore to the national exchequer against its profit earned during the fiscal year 2019-20.
The fund was deposited with a designated account of the national exchequer maintained with Sonali Bank’s Agrabad Corporate Branch, Chattogram on 21 June, official sources said.
BPC, a state agency tasked with import, distribute and market oil and petroleum product across the country, earned Tk 5,000 crore profit in 2019-20 fiscal through oil trade in the domestic market.
“A price gap of petroleum products between local and international market has helped BPC to rack up healthy profit during the FY’20,” a BPC official told The New Nation yesterday asking not to be named, as he is not authorised to talk to media.
BPC logged a net profit of Tk 3,846 crore in the fiscal year 2018-2019, as compared to Tk 6,533 crore in 2017-2018, according to the company’s provisional annual report 2018-19 published in its website on February 13.
“BPC made hefty profits during 2014-2020 riding on a sharp fall in oil prices in the international market. But its profit may come down in the outgoing fiscal year (2020-21) amid rising oil prices on the international market,” said the BPC official.
Following the Covid outbreak, crude oil prices had plunged to $19.90 in April last year during the first pandemic wave before recovering to $66.95 a barrel in May.
Global crude oil prices are expected to be in the $75-80 per barrel range till September, according to analysts.
On Tuesday, West Texas Intermediate crude price was $73.68 a barrel, while Brent crude was $75.34 a barrel, according to Oil Price.Com
“BPC was procuring oil at low prices from international market, and was selling it at high rates in local market. Such a policy helps BPC making huge profit in the recent years,” Prof Shamsul Alam, an energy expert, told The New Nation.
He said oil prices in the international market have fallen drastically in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. But the consumers of Bangladesh are missing out on the benefits of a global slide in oil prices because of the government’s apathy to cut down their prices.
The government last fixed fuel prices in 2016 when per barrel prices of crude oil and diesel oil in the international market were $43.13 and $50.31 respectively.
