Petrobangla has been facing an acute shortage of funds due to the mismatch between procurement of gas and its sale, officials said.
The Bangladesh Oil and Gas Corporation (BOGC) requires over Tk 54 billion immediately to make payments to Large Taxpayers Unit (LTU) of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and others, they added.
Deficit is likely to stand at over Tk 38 billion in the current fiscal year for selling gas to the customers at lower prices and buying it at higher prices. Besides, it may stand at over Tk 15 billion during the period between December, 2015 and June 2016, they also mentioned.
Gas produced by international oil companies (IOCs) is costlier than the selling price. As a result, the amount of deficit has been increasing. Besides, Petrobangla has to pay taxes in the form of different names, they said.
The state-owned gas distribution companies under Petrobangla collected value added tax (VAT) and supplementary duty (SD) from their customers, but defaulted on payment of the same to the government, a source concerned said.
Recently, BOGC has sought over Tk 54.43 billion as subsidy for the current and last fiscal years from the Energy and Mineral Resources Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MoPEMR) aiming to bridge the price gap between procurement and selling, he said.
The division has forwarded a letter to the finance ministry, seeking allocation.
"We have already received a letter sent by Energy and Mineral Resources Division. But we have yet to start work on the issue," an official said.
The state-owned oil and gas corporation incurred a loss of over Tk 37 billion in the last fiscal year, according to Petrobangla.
"For the first time, we have sought required allocation from MoPEMR to make different payments," Nazrul Islam, General Manager (financial management) of Petrobangla, told the FE on Tuesday.
For example, he said, payments to the international oil companies have to be made in time. Besides, due payment to LTU has to be made after collection of VAT and SD from clients/customers, he mentioned.
Gas is purchased at higher prices produced by the IOCs. On the other hand, gas is sold to the customers at lower prices. As a result, a hefty deficit is widening every day. So, nearly Tk 40 billion may be needed as subsidy for the current fiscal year, an official said.
Besides, over Tk 15.69 billion has been estimated during the period between December and June for the last fiscal year, according to the data available with Petrobangla.
Over Tk 26.22 billion has been paid to LTU as VAT and SD, the data mentioned.
"We have sent a letter to the finance ministry, seeking two allocations on behalf of Petrobangla. We have yet to get any reply in this regard," Assistant Secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources Division Shirin Sultana told the FE at her secretariat office.
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