Gas price hike: Take a rational approach

There is little doubt in the fact that the gas price for domestic purposes is undervalued and those who use gas cylinders all across the country spend much more than those who have gas line connection say, for example, the city dwellers in the capital. A household that uses a double-burner oven now pays only Tk 650 and Tk 600 burner for a single burner for unlimited use in a period of month. The family that uses gas cylinder, on the contrary, cannot meet up the total fuel cost spending even Tk 2000 in a month. Surely there is a discrepancy here. But all Bangladesh citizens have equal rights on its resources and it is necessary to strike a balance here. This can either be done by lowering the gas of cylinder or by increasing the price domestic gas connection. Since Bangladesh is a country of limited resources and the government needs money to run the state, the only option is making an increase of gas price.
But this increase has to be made in a rational way. If the government wants to make an increase by about hundred per cent at one go as it did in the past, the step would not be well received by the consumers, particularly the poor ones. Recently the acting secretary of the energy and mineral resources ministry recently hinted at a hike in gas prices for domestic and automobile use. Some time ago the state minister for energy and mineral resources also spoke about this hike.
True if the government gives gas that is used for domestic and automobile sectors to the industrial sector, the earning of the government would greatly multiply. But the government is not there only to earn and it is most importantly to serve its citizens and when it sells the country’s resources to the citizens it has to be fair. The last time when the government increased gas price was in September last year and increase within a short span of eight months will not also go well with the consumers. Therefore the relevant authorities have to take all these into consideration while making an increase of gas price. But if the government right from the beginning of supplying gas to domestic purpose used metred system, then it could have prevented misuse of gas. For checking wastage, it can arguably initiate metre system even now.

 

Gas price hike: Take a rational approach

There is little doubt in the fact that the gas price for domestic purposes is undervalued and those who use gas cylinders all across the country spend much more than those who have gas line connection say, for example, the city dwellers in the capital. A household that uses a double-burner oven now pays only Tk 650 and Tk 600 burner for a single burner for unlimited use in a period of month. The family that uses gas cylinder, on the contrary, cannot meet up the total fuel cost spending even Tk 2000 in a month. Surely there is a discrepancy here. But all Bangladesh citizens have equal rights on its resources and it is necessary to strike a balance here. This can either be done by lowering the gas of cylinder or by increasing the price domestic gas connection. Since Bangladesh is a country of limited resources and the government needs money to run the state, the only option is making an increase of gas price. But this increase has to be made in a rational way. If the government wants to make an increase by about hundred per cent at one go as it did in the past, the step would not be well received by the consumers, particularly the poor ones. Recently the acting secretary of the energy and mineral resources ministry recently hinted at a hike in gas prices for domestic and automobile use. Some time ago the state minister for energy and mineral resources also spoke about this hike. True if the government gives gas that is used for domestic and automobile sectors to the industrial sector, the earning of the government would greatly multiply. But the government is not there only to earn and it is most importantly to serve its citizens and when it sells the countrys resources to the citizens it has to be fair. The last time when the government increased gas price was in September last year and increase within a short span of eight months will not also go well with the consumers. Therefore the relevant authorities have to take all these into consideration while making an increase of gas price. But if the government right from the beginning of supplying gas to domestic purpose used metred system, then it could have prevented misuse of gas. For checking wastage, it can arguably initiate metre system even now.