The government on Monday night cut fuel prices by Tk 5 per litre in line with the 10 percent slash in the import duty of diesel by the National Board of Revenue (NBR). The price adjustment comes 23 days after the government’s record fuel price hike on August 5. Adjustment of such a small margin drew huge criticism from common people. They slammed the government for “playing a cruel joke” with them after the prices of diesel, kerosene, petrol and octane recorded a slight cut on Monday night.
Experts and stakeholders in their instant reactions have said that the reduction against the massive increase of Tk 34 to Tk 46 per litre would have little or no impact at all. Businesses, farmers and other sections of people will not be benefited from this price slash. To them, this price reduction will have no impact on transportation fare, inflation and prices of daily essentials. Rather, it would be difficult to readjust transportation fares again which was enhanced just in the first week of this month. It would also have not much impact on agriculture — either in irrigation cost or transportation cost of farm products. So, the government should give farmers diesel at subsidised rate or cash incentives for irrigation. Otherwise, farmers will not be able to recover the cost of Aman farming this season.
On the other hand, businesses have said that there would hardly be any impact on commodity price or production cost in mills and factories. Diesel price hike enhanced captive power generation cost in factories and ready-made garment is among the sectors most affected. Diesel price was raised by Tk 34 per litre, now it has been lowered by only Tk 5. Any positive impact is not likely. It is to be noted that the government on August 5 hiked the diesel and kerosene price by 42.5 percent as well as petrol and octane price by 51 percent. Fuel oils saw their record hike in prices at one go in 20 years, leading to a chaotic rise in transport fare, commodity prices and factory costs.
The government should waive more taxes on fuel oil during one of the worst economic periods of the country. Though the energy crisis and inflation are now global phenomena, countries, including our neighbours, are showing ways to protect people from energy price shocks. Bangladesh needs to find experts with more innovative expertise to help people during the on-going tough times.
