Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Business leaders have urged the government to implement an immediate price reduction on fuel products to bring it in conformity with falling oil prices in the global market.
They came up with the call as prices of crude oil fell below US$35 a barrel for the first time since 2009 on Monday.
“It is disturbing that in spite of the fall in crude oil prices in global market, we are still buying petroleum products at higher prices. This is raising production cost of local industries making them uncompetitive in the global market,” Abdus Salam Murshedy, President of the Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB), told The New Nation on Tuesday. He said industrial units which buy diesel and furnace oil on daily basis for power generation and transportation find it difficult to be achieved break-even due to high cost of doing business.
“Our cost of production goes up by 20 per cent over the last one year as a result of escalating fuel and energy prices leaving an adverse impact on industries,” he added.
Justifying the fuel price cut, he said, the price of fuel oil was last adjusted when its price was US$100 per barrel in the international market. Now it sells below US$35 a barrel providing enough room for the government to reduce prices in domestic market.
“Such a move can give the much needed relief to the industries,” he added.
“We don’t see any justification to maintain the fuel prices at current level when global oil prices steadily falling,” M Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, Vice-President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), told The New Nation on Tuesday.
He said, the oil prices in the international market continue to fall since 2014 and now it came down by nearly one third from previous level providing the government an opportunity to deregulate domestic oil prices. The FBCCI leader urged the government to revise domestic petroleum prices immediately to allow the benefit of falling global oil price to industrial consumers.
“The collapse of crude oil price since October 2014 has not translated into the domestic fuel price which is unfortunate for consumers of Bangladesh, Hossain Khaled, President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) told The New Nation.
“It is high time to readjust the domestic fuel oil prices as the international oil prices now stand at record low,” he said, adding, “The government should rationalize the fuel prices to make local industries cost effective”.
When asked, Nasrul Hamid Bipu, State Minister for Power and Energy told The New Nation on Monday that the government is likely to maintain the fuel prices at current level despite the fall in global oil prices.
“The government has no immediate plan to reduce retail price of petroleum products to compensate cumulative losses incurred by state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation,” he added.
The government is selling kerosene, diesel, octane and petrol at prices fixed in January 2013.
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), the country’s sole oil importer, is making a whopping profit of Tk 31 per liter of octane and petrol, and in cases of kerosene and jet fuel the profit is Tk 17 per liter, diesel Tk 18 per liter and furnace oil Tk 22 per liter.
Officials said, the state-run BPC made a hefty profit of Tk 5000 crore last fiscal taking advantage of falling oil prices in the global market.
