The government has reduced the prices of fuel oil by Tk 5 a litre 23 days after raising the prices by as much as 51.68 per cent. The new prices of diesel, kerosene, octane and petrol will be effective from Monday night, said State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid.
The decision to cut the prices came after the authorities on Sunday lowered the duty on diesel imports to 5 per cent from 10 per cent. The finance ministry also waived advance tax on diesel imports. Officials at the National Board of Revenue said the latest decisions mean taxes for diesel imports have been reduced by 11.25 percentage points to 22.75 per cent overall.
As production and transport costs went up due to the fuel oil price hike, traders raised prices of all commodities, from bus fares to the prices of rice and eggs. To cool off the prices of rice, the government on Sunday lowered the regulatory duty on rice imports to 5 per cent from 25 per cent and waived all import duties.
ABM Azad, Chairman of the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), earlier said they are analysing the impact of the recent duty cut on diesel import and withdrawal of advance income tax before taking any decision on possible decrease in the price of the fuel.
“We hope, we can complete our analysis within 2-3 days and send our finding to the ministry to take a final decision on any possible adjustment in diesel price”, he told reporters on Monday following a meeting with petrol pump owners.
His comments came a day after the government cut the duty on diesel import by half to five per cent and abolished all advance taxes on its import. The changes were notified through a gazette notification issued by the National Board of Revenue on Sunday.
The order came into effect immediately and will remain effective until the end of (December 31) this year. The NBR notification added that light and high speed diesel oils will get the new facilities.
Experts in the industry and the transport sectors believe that the new order came against the backdrop of the consistent demand from the politicians and business circles, as well as the common people, following the government’s hike of prices of all petroleum fuels.
The government on August 5 announced the largest ever hikes in the price of fuel oil – ranging from 42- 52 per cent – with effect from August 6. At the consumer level, the retail prices of diesel and kerosene went up to Tk114 per litre, up by a whopping 42.5 per cent from Tk 80/litre. Octane price was raised to Tk135 per litre, up an eye-watering 51.7 per cent from Tk 89/litre – again the largest hike on record.
Lastly, a litre of petrol was set at Tk130 from at the pump, that used to be Tk 86/litre even just a few hours ago as of writing this report – another 51 per cent hike in one go that has no precedent in independent Bangladesh.
Bangladesh annually imports about 6.5 million metric tons of petroleum, of which 5 million metric tons is refined. Of these, the major portion is diesel – mainly consumed by transport, industry and power sector.
