The government has decided to cut the price of furnace oil. The revised price will be announced within a week. This was confirmed by state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid yesterday. The state minister, however, said that the government was yet to decide on price cut for other fuels such as diesel, petrol and octane. “We are still discussing it. May be an announcement will come after one month,” he told The Independent. He also refused to divulge any detail about the new price of furnace oil. “You all will know within the week,” he said. Hamid also said the decision to cut the price of furnace oil was taken to help the industrial sector. “Lots of factories and power plants use furnace oil. A price cut will be beneficial for them,” he added. Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) had adjusted oil prices upwards in 2013 when the rate of the commodity per barrel had risen to USD 122 in the international market. It had fixed the price of per litre of octane at Tk. 99, petrol at Tk. 96 and diesel at Tk. 68 at that time.
The state-owned enterprise has been maintaining the same prices since then, even though the oil price has dropped to less than USD 40 a barrel globally in the last two years. The prices were not revised in order to enable the BPC to offset its losses. Commenting on the government’s latest decision of reducing the price of furnace oil, Prof. Badrul Imam, professor of petroleum geology at Dhaka University, said, “It is a good decision. The government should have done this earlier.” “If the price of furnace oil is reduced, then the government does not need to increase the price of electricity as per the proposal of the electricity distribution companies,” he added. It is to be noted that even though the global oil price has been falling for around one-and-a-half years, the government has the kept oil price unchanged. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently rejected the proposal put forward by finance minister AMA Muhith and planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal to cut oil prices, following demands by top business bodies, including FBCCI and BGMEA.