The government now mulls a hike in the prices of petroleum products on grounds of surging oil prices in the international market. Consumer rights groups protest such a move at a time when living is getting costlier for price rises of almost all essentials, while the government cites recurring losses incurred in local marketing of the imported fuel oils. The state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) is readying a proposal to submit to the energy and mineral resources division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources for the proposed hike. Hiking oil prices will have a chain reaction and further raise the price of all commodities.
BPC demands authority to adjust petroleum prices once a month considering the price fluctuations of oils in the global market. The state corporation is currently incurring loss worth around Tk 200 million every day due to the surge in oil prices globally. Besides, the corporation argues that a hike in oil prices is required to check smuggling of oil products to neighbouring India where diesel price is around Tk 118 per litre compared to Tk 65 in Bangladesh. The proposal on oil-price hike follows a back-to-back hike proposal being prepared by state-run Petrobangla for natural gas.
Market sources say the international oil market is currently witnessing an upturn and the price of Brent crude, the benchmark in international oil price, now hovers around US$ 85 per barrel. Fixing the oil prices by the government or by the BPC will be a violation of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) Act. The energy regulatory commission only has the authority to fix energy and power tariffs, which include natural gas, electricity, petroleum oil and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). There is no point in raising domestic oil prices now as the BPC attained profit over Tk 400 billion over the past several years when domestic oil prices were higher than international rates. The BPC had racked up hefty profits riding on sharp fall in oil prices on the international market over the past six years since 2015.
The people are coming out in the street in protest of government’s inability to stabilise prices of essential items is condemnable. Nobody is accountable to make life tolerable of the common people. As they do not choose the government they are nobody to government. This is too irresponsible a thinking. The government must take account of the miseries of the people.
