Mohammed Badrul Ahsan :
The government is set to formulate a policy to attract private investment in the country’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector without incorporating issues of fixing the maximum retail price (MRP), sources said.
To this effect, a high-level committee of the Energy Division has recently finalised a draft-policy and placed to Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid for approval.
According to the sources, the draft policy was proposed to be named as “Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) import, production, preservation, terminal construction, plant set-up, and auto-gas refuelling station set-up, operation, distribution and marketing policy.”
“I don’t know why the authority did not include the issue, but sure that the issue of fixing the MRP for LPG and auto gas is left out of the proposed policy,” a high official of the concern ministry told The New Nation (NN) preferring anonymity.
He also said that if the government doesn’t incorporate the issues to the new policy then, syndication by the investors may hurt the public interest.
However, when contacted, State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid said that he has already gone through the draft-policy and instructed the officials concerned to bring some changes to the draft policy to make it more private-sector friendly.
“After my discussion with private sector investors, I’ve have given my notes on some key issues of the draft policy and instructed the officials to incorporate those in the final copy,” he told without giving any detail of his instructions.
Replying to the NN, the minister said the government is mulling a plan to formulate a separate policy regarding the pricing issue.
“The ministry will formulate a separate policy to address the issue of pricing of LPG and auto gas,” he added.
Meanwhile, Energy expert and Professor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) M. Tamim welcomed the move of the government.
He suggested ensuring a 10 percent market share by the government entities in LPG and auto gas market to resist the any foul-play or monopoly by private sector in fixing the prices of the products.
LPG and auto gas are the same products. When it comes to household use it is termed as LPG and when it comes to the use in motor vehicles, it is mentioned as Auto-Gas. Many investors in private sector have lined up with huge interest to invest in the new field of the energy sector.
As per the draft policy, if any individual or a company wants to set up any bulk LPG plant, it must have a 3000 metric tons storage capacity.
The second key point of the policy is that the investor has to start a process of investment within a year of getting permission and complete installation of plant within next 2 years. Otherwise, the permission will be automatically cancelled.
However, the initial permission will be non-transferable. But after setting up the plant, the licence could be transferred to third party.
Sources said the non-transferable provision was incorporated to check the current practice of a certain quarter to receive licence through persuasion and then selling out to other.
Initially, the storage capacity was fixed at 5000 mt and plant set-up tenure was 2 years.
“But at the request of the aspirant investors, the issue of capacity and tenure was little bit relaxed,” said a deputy secretary of the Energy Division.
The government is set to formulate a policy to attract private investment in the country’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector without incorporating issues of fixing the maximum retail price (MRP), sources said.
To this effect, a high-level committee of the Energy Division has recently finalised a draft-policy and placed to Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid for approval.
According to the sources, the draft policy was proposed to be named as “Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) import, production, preservation, terminal construction, plant set-up, and auto-gas refuelling station set-up, operation, distribution and marketing policy.”
“I don’t know why the authority did not include the issue, but sure that the issue of fixing the MRP for LPG and auto gas is left out of the proposed policy,” a high official of the concern ministry told The New Nation (NN) preferring anonymity.
He also said that if the government doesn’t incorporate the issues to the new policy then, syndication by the investors may hurt the public interest.
However, when contacted, State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid said that he has already gone through the draft-policy and instructed the officials concerned to bring some changes to the draft policy to make it more private-sector friendly.
“After my discussion with private sector investors, I’ve have given my notes on some key issues of the draft policy and instructed the officials to incorporate those in the final copy,” he told without giving any detail of his instructions.
Replying to the NN, the minister said the government is mulling a plan to formulate a separate policy regarding the pricing issue.
“The ministry will formulate a separate policy to address the issue of pricing of LPG and auto gas,” he added.
Meanwhile, Energy expert and Professor of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) M. Tamim welcomed the move of the government.
He suggested ensuring a 10 percent market share by the government entities in LPG and auto gas market to resist the any foul-play or monopoly by private sector in fixing the prices of the products.
LPG and auto gas are the same products. When it comes to household use it is termed as LPG and when it comes to the use in motor vehicles, it is mentioned as Auto-Gas. Many investors in private sector have lined up with huge interest to invest in the new field of the energy sector.
As per the draft policy, if any individual or a company wants to set up any bulk LPG plant, it must have a 3000 metric tons storage capacity.
The second key point of the policy is that the investor has to start a process of investment within a year of getting permission and complete installation of plant within next 2 years. Otherwise, the permission will be automatically cancelled.
However, the initial permission will be non-transferable. But after setting up the plant, the licence could be transferred to third party.
Sources said the non-transferable provision was incorporated to check the current practice of a certain quarter to receive licence through persuasion and then selling out to other.
Initially, the storage capacity was fixed at 5000 mt and plant set-up tenure was 2 years.
“But at the request of the aspirant investors, the issue of capacity and tenure was little bit relaxed,” said a deputy secretary of the Energy Division.
