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Plan for 2-day holiday, cut on govt vehicles

Fuel price hike comes into effect

Star Report
To offset the severe pressure on economy, the government might consider two-day weekly holiday, keeping 17 percent government motor vehicles off road and converting all petroleum-based power plants into gas-fired plants within the next five years.
The possibility arose as the energy ministry recommended a dozen steps for the government to encourage energy conservation after the government yesterday increased the prices of 10 types of petroleum oil simultaneously by an all-time high proportion ranging from 5.5 to 33 percent.
Sources said the proposal was
sent to the prime minister last week and may be placed at a cabinet meeting soon.
Meanwhile, yesterday's hike marked the lowest 5.5 percent rise for liquid petroleum gas (LPG) while the prices of kerosene and diesel increased by 15 percent. The highest raise was marked for turpentine or MTT oil which shot up by 33 percent.
The government justified the move on grounds of international oil price hike exceeding the $70 per barrel mark. A decade ago, the price per barrel was around $15-25.
The present price trend has put heavy pressure on the economy and Bangladesh Petroleum
Corporation (BPC), said Advisor to the energy ministry Mahmudur Rahman.
The country now consumes 3.7 million metric tonnes (mt) of petroleum, which is entirely imported. Of this, 2.3 mt is diesel and 0.6 mt kerosene.
According to the new rates, the price of kerosene and diesel went up by Tk 4 reaching Tk 30 per litre, petrol went up by Tk 6 to Tk 42, octane by Tk 7 to Tk 45, specialised petroleum products JBO and LDO by Tk 6 to Tk 28, SBP by Tk 6 to Tk 38, turpentine by Tk 8 to Tk 32, and furnace oil by Tk 2 to Tk 14. The price of per 12.5 kilo LPG cylinder increased byTk25 toTk475.
This is the eighth time the present government has hiked petroleum prices since coming to power in October 2001. However, it had never increased the prices of all the 10 different types of petroleum simultaneously in the past.
"The first reason for the hike is that the price of oil has skyrocketed internationally," said Mahmudur Rahman. "The second reason is, the BPC continues to count loss like last year. If we had not increased the price, the BPC loss this year would have come to Tk 4000 crore. But now this loss will decrease by Tk 1700 crore."
Mahmudur added that the BPC had historically made losses but gave a lot of import duties which was considered as profit. "But last year, the BPC loss exceeded the amount of duties it paid for the first time. The BPC made a loss of Tk 2700 crore while it paid Tk 2400 crore as duties," he said.
"The third reason is, import of oil is also creating heavy pressure on the foreign currency reserve. The price hike will now force people to be frugal with oil use, which will ultimately reduce the pressure on the reserve," he said.
Mahmudur observed that the new price level has come close to that in India. "In the past, higher oil
price in India encouraged smuggling of oil [from Bangladesh], Now this will not happen and as a result, the overall import of oil of Bangladesh will decrease," he said.
"Besides there was pressure on the government from the donors to increase the price," Mahmudur added.
"Even after this hike, we will still have to subsidise diesel and kerosene by Tk 11 per litre. However, we will not have to subsidise petrol and octane as the BPC's cost of petrol and octane is Tk 42 per litre," he pointed out.
Energy ministry proposals
In its proposal, the energy ministry recommended a two-day weekly holiday. The high number of government motor vehicles contribute significantly to the high demand for petroleum. A two-day weekly holiday will cut down one day's transport expense for government staff, the proposal said.
The ministry also suggested closing of all shops except drug stores and restaurants after 8:00pm everyday.
After 10:00pm, all neon signs and billboards should be shut down.
Illumination of public places should be barred.
Finally, the government should encourage the government institutions to use energy saving lights.