Diesel, kerosene down by Tk2.25/litre for Apr
Staff Reporter :
The government has reduced fuel oil prices aligned with the international market, as diesel and kerosene will now be sold at Taka 106 per litre, down by Taka 2.25 from the previous rate of Taka 108.25.
The government has set the automated retail prices of gasoline for the month of April on Sunday.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division issued a gazette notification in this regard on Sunday afternoon.
However, the prices of octane and petrol have been kept unchanged at Tk 126 and Tk 122, respectively, according to the notification. The prices will be effective at pumps starting at midnight.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Jatri Kallyan Samity demanded of the government a reduction in bus fares, considering the reduction in fuel and oil prices.
The Secretary General of the organisation, Mozammel Huq, said this was issued on Sunday.
He said that the government has reduced the price of fuel oil twice, but it has not decreased the fare for buses and trucks.
However, as per the new rates, per litre diesel and kerosene will be sold at Tk 106 in April, a Tk 2.25 drop from March prices, according to a gazette notification.
The government launched the new formula to fix fuel oil rates on March 7, according to the terms of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $4.7 billion loan.
Prices will be fixed every month with the new automatic system. Two installments of the loan have already been released.
On February 29, the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) issued a notification on Automatic Fuel Oil Pricing Guidelines.
According to the notification, the prices of all petroleum fuels—petrol, diesel, octane, kerosene, furnace oil, jet fuel, and marine fuels—will be set automatically based on the international market price.
It said octane and petrol are used in the country in large quantities in vehicles; hence, their price is always kept higher than diesel as a luxury item.
The guidelines include details of the automatic pricing structure, international price, moving average price, premium, operational expenses, financing, administrative and maintenance expenses, trade VAT, freight pool, dealer commission and transportation, development fund, and company margin.
In setting a price for any of the petroleum fuels, all the expenses, including the international market price, import tax, advance income tax and VAT, operational expenses, finance, administrative and maintenance costs, the BPC’s margins, VAT, and sale and distribution costs, will be taken into account and then set.
According to sources at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, fuel prices will be determined based on the average import price of refined fuel oil per barrel, which currently stands at $100.
Bangladesh has an annual demand of 65–70 lakh metric tonnes of fuel oil, more than 70% of which is diesel.The rest is petrol, octane, and kerosene.
Till now, the BPC has been the only company to import and supply fuel.
About 60% of the fuel oil consumed in the country is used in transportation, and 15.50% in the agriculture sector.
