State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Monday said that the government would not reduce the prices of fuel oils in near future as the prices in the international market had increased.
Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Md Maksudul Haque said that the Commission would announce the increased prices of natural gas in December with effect from January 1.
The salaries and allowances of the government officials had been increased raising the cost of gas supplies, he added. The energy commission last time raised the prices of natural gas by 26.29 per cent on an average at consumer level with effect from September 1, 2015.
In August 2016, the commission held a series of public hearings on the proposals of natural gas utilities for raising the prices again by 94 per cent on an average. On November 17, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told reporters that the government would cut the prices of fuel oils in the local market soon for higher economic ‘momentum.’
The government earlier slashed the prices of octane and petrol by Tk 10 per litre and diesel and kerosene by Tk 3 per litre. In March the government also cut the price of furnace oil, mostly used by power plants, by 30 per cent from Tk 60 to Tk 42 a litre. The government drew severe criticism as the reduction in fuel oil prices left no impact on local market as well as on the cost of living as it did not lower the transport fares or electricity prices.
Since the middle of June 2014 the price of Brent Crude started declining from $117 per barrel and dropped as low as $27.65 a barrel in January 2016 before rebounding to $56.82 on Monday last. The government earned approximately Tk 10,000 crore in the form of taxes and duties from fuel oil and natural gas sector in 2015-16 financial year while it earned more than Tk 6,000 crore in profit.
The decision of hiking gas prices could be avoided had the government exempted Petrobangla from paying the taxes of International Oil Companies in Bangladesh. Meanwhile we are awarding blocks to IOCs without any competitive tendering. Instead of looking for more gas we are increasing prices. This cant be a good thing as we are not thinking about the hardships of the common citizen who is already plagued by a rise in prices of most essential goods and service like food and education, electricity and transport. The administration must think of the common man instead of indulging in dubious deals with IOCs. Increasing prices to pay for the salaries of public servants while overlooking the average citizen is not acceptable.
