Prices of petroleum oil, gas hiked
FE REPORT | Wednesday, 1 May 2024
The government has raised the prices of petroleum oil and gas used for power and captive power generation.
Petrol price has increased by Tk 2.50 per litre to Tk 124.50 while that of diesel and kerosene by Tk 1.0 to Tk 107 per litre.
The price of octane has also been raised by Tk 2.50 per litre to Tk 128.50 per litre.
The revised rates of fuel oil will come into force today (May 01), said a press release issued by the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry on Tuesday.
The government has raised the fuel oil prices as per the automatic fuel pricing mechanism, which was introduced on February 29 last.
In the maiden price adjustment, the prices of diesel and kerosene were lowered by Tk0.75 to Tk108.25 per litre.
The price of petrol was also reduced by Tk3.0 to Tk122 while octane by Tk4.0 to Tk126 in March last.
On the other hand, the government also raised the gas price for power and captive power plants by Tk 0.75 per cubic metre with effect from May 2024.
With the enhancement, the new price of gas will be Tk 15.50 per cubic metre for independent power plants (IPPs) and rental power plants from the previous rate of Tk 14.75.
On the other hand, the captive, small and commercial power plants have to pay Tk 31.50 per cubic metre from the previous rate of Tk 30.75.
Earlier, the government raised the natural gas prices by Tk 0.75 for power plants including captive ones in late February last.
It said the prices of gas for other categories of users have been kept unchanged.
The government raised the gas price under purview of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) Act, 2003 with a view to keeping the government's subsidy within the tolerable level.
The government has to pay about Tk 65.70 billion as subsidy due to the existing gap between costs of production, import and supply of gas and its sales prices.
According to the notification, there are eight categories of gas consumers in Bangladesh, of which 37 per cent gas is used in power generation, followed industry with by 23 per cent, captive power 18 per cent, household 10 per cent, fertiliser production 7.0 per cent, Compress Natural Gas (CNG) 4.0 per cent and commercial and tea industry with 1.0 percent.