Petrobangla's earning has gone up 10.93 percent to Tk 3,328 crore last fiscal year from Tk 3,000 crore in the previous financial year, a top Petrobangla official said.

The state-owned oil and gas authority's annual contribution to the public coffers also clocked a Tk 309 crore rise to Tk 2570.8 crore at the same time, according to the official who preferred to remain unnamed.

The upward earning reaffirms Petrobangla's position as one of the top state-run earners in the country alongside Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) and Bangladesh Bank. The BPC however incurs Tk 700 to 800 crore loss, but still it contributes over Tk 3,500 crore to the national exchequer in petroleum import duty.

Petrobangla has been enjoying a

robust earning trend for the last two years as gas consumption has shot up significantly.

In the 2002-03 fiscal year, Petrobangla's contribution soared by more than Tk 600 crore to Tk 2,261 crore from Tk 1,633 crore of 2001-2002 fiscal.

A Petrobangla press release says rising gas consumption in the 2003-2004 financial year has saved the country Tk 12,000 crore in foreign exchange. Presently, nine affiliates of Petrobangla are feeding the nation 80 percent of the energy needs.

Petrobangla paid Tk 1,823 crore in VAT and supplementary duty, Tk 322 crore in debt service liability, Tk 175 crore in dividend, Tk 162 crore in income tax and Tk 39 crore customs duty and VAT.

The nine affiliates involved in gas production, distribution and transmission made the contribution.

"Petrobangla's contribution to

the national exchequer was unusually high also because it made a huge arrears payment to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in the shape of duty and VAT payment against gas sale," said a Petrobangla official.

"According to the gas sale, Petrobangla was supposed to pay Tk 1,588 crore worth of duty. But it paid about Tk 250 crore more to the NBR because it had the ability to clear arrear dues."

Petrobangla sources said gas consumption between 2003 and 2004 shot up nearly 100 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd). Presently, the country consumes over 1300 mmcfd gas.

It did not increase the gas price since 2002.

Back in 1980-81, Petrobangla contributed only Tk 51.44 crore to the national exchequer.