The government has initiated the process of rationalising the service charge for private importers on their import of furnace oil following the fall in prices of petroleum products in the global markets, officials have said.
An eight-member committee has been formed with the additional secretary of the Power Division as its chief to prepare a proposal in this connection, according to the officials.
At present the private power plants are getting a service charge of 9.0 per cent from the government against the free-on-board (FOB) prices of furnace oil, freight charges, insurance, handling commission, port duties, inland transportation cost and storage charge on the fuel.
But following the fall in oil prices in international markets the private firms' proceeds from the service charge have also declined.
So, the existing service charge on import of furnace oil by the private firms or private power plants needs to be reviewed, says a high official at the Power Division. Industry insiders have also echoed him.
The eight-member committee will submit a proposal on how to re-fix the charge after review of the existing one, sources concerned have said.
The committee is free to take opinions from the private power generation companies or representatives concerned, if needed.
The proposal on the service charge will be submitted to the secretary of the Power Division within next two months, according to the sources.
The government has so far permitted around two dozen new sponsors to import furnace oil.
The country's furnace oil-import is rising significantly as dozens of furnace oil-fired power plants have been set up for augmenting power generation, according to relevant sources.
It began importing furnace oil from mid-2010, when furnace oil-fired power plants started going into operation.
The state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will import 900,000 tonnes of petroleum products in 2015, while private power plants will import nearly 600,000 tonnes, according to the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. The fuel import target for every power plant is fixed every year based on the production capacity, production cost of every unit of electricity and other plant factors, a senior official of the power cell has said.
Currently the country has 39 oil-fired power plants. Of them, more than 25 run on furnace oil and diesel, said Rezaul Karim Khan, executive engineer at the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) for the independent power producer (IPP)-1.
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