‘Fuel oil price hike not bureaucratic decision, it is political’

The price hikes of diesel and kerosene was not a bureaucratic decision rather it was a political decision. Bureaucrats can’t make such vital decisions, Anisur Rahman, senior secretary to the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, said.

He made the remarks at a virtual seminar organised by the Forum for Energy Reports (FERB) on Thursday chaired by FERB Chairman Arun Karmakar.

had been observing the (price) situation for 6 months when the price was $71 per barrel in May but the price shot up to $93 per barrel in October and we were forced to raise the prices,” Rahman said.

In addition, “I do not have the answer to the question whether the price of diesel will go up if the price goes up further in the international market. If the price falls in the international market, it will be brought down immediately. However, we will not be able to take the responsibility whether the price of transport or any other commodity will go down.”

The secretary said: “In 2016, the surplus Tk 10,000 crore (in profit) was taken (to government exchequer). Had the money not taken, we could have waited longer (before making price adjustments). We accepted that there will be some criticism.”

While responding to a reporter, he said the use of diesel constitutes 73 percent and petro-octane 10.12 percent of the total fuel-oil use in the country. “Therefore, even if we raised prices of petrol and octane by Tk 40, we could not have adjusted prices.”

If the price of kerosene was not increased, there would have been a possibility of adulteration.

“I am not thinking about increasing the price of gas and electricity at this moment,” he said.

ABM Azad, chairman of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, said BPC did not have the authority to raise fuel prices alone. BPC imports and sells fuel oil. The decision to increase fuel prices is a decision of the government.

BPC has taken several projects to enhance efficiency of BPC. It has cost Tk 30,000 crore to Tk 35,000 crore, he added.

Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board Engineer Belayet Hossain said, “We are also a consumer of fuel oil.” Oil, gas prices have risen by 4-5 times, and coal prices have risen by 5 times. Everything has fallen on the shoulders of the end users.

From July 2020 to June 2021, the cost of power generation was Tk 50,000 crore. Of them, the capacity charge was worth Tk 25,000 crore and fuel cost Tk 25,000 crore. This time, the government had provided subsidies worth Tk 11,000 crore.

Energy expert Professor Ijaz Hossain said diesel is used by marginal and low income people. Therefore, by not increasing diesel prices was a philosophy to benefit the commoners. “Are we abandoning that philosophy?”