& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Users hardly benefit from LPG price fall

Sajjadur Rahman
Local consumers are not benefitting much from the continued price fall of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), mainly due to a lack of monitoring.
Importers and marketers said they have been reducing LPG prices for the past few months, but retailers do not offer lower prices to consumers, who often remain ignorant of a downward price adjustment.
"There is no mechanism to monitor and control the retailers who make higher profits by not lowering the prices," said Jahidul Islam, divisional head for operations and planning at Bashundhara LP Gas.
Bangladesh consumes more than one lakh tonnes of LPG a year, 80 percent of which is imported from Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, and the rest is produced by state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).
Prices of LPG in the domestic market are linked with the prices that Saudi Aramco offers. Aramco has cut prices by $570 to $648 per tonne between January and November this year. Market players said import costs of LPG went down to Tk 62,000 a tonne, including transport charges, from Tk 100,000 six months ago, a 38 percent fall. But, local prices did not decline even 5 percent.
A 12-kg gas cylinder is now being sold at Tk 1,450 at the retail level in Dhaka, which should no way exceed Tk 1,350, according to market operators. The price was Tk 1,550 in January.
"We have reduced our prices by Tk 50 for a 12-kg cylinder of gas. Maybe, consumers do not know about the price cuts. And retailers take advantage of it to make higher profits," said Saidul Islam, general manager of Kleenheat, another big player.
Local companies Bashundhara and Jamuna Spacetech, and TotalGaz of France and Kleenheat of Australia sell cooking gas. They import LPG twice a month, on average, and so there is no chance that importers will miss out on the price fall benefits. Local TK Croup buys raw materials from the BPC and makes finished products for selling those in the domesticmarket.
The importers said they do not stockpile or manipulate prices for more profits as they have to compete with each other. Meanwhile, Omera Petroleum, a subsidiary of MJL Bangladesh, has set everything ready to enter the market in a few months.
"Sub-dealers and retailers deceive consumers to make higher profits," said Islam ofBashundhara.
An official ofTotalgaz also echoed the same. "This could have been avoided had we written the prices on the cylinders, " the official said, asking not to be named.
The LPG prices fluctuate so frequently that it is hard to stick to a price even for a month, he added.
The Daily Star talked to a number of LPG consumers in Dhaka. None of them was aware that the LPG prices have gone down around 40 percent in the international market during the past several months.
"My vendor charged Tk 1,450 for a 12-kg cylinder last week. I paid the same six months ago," said Jahangir Alam, a resident of Kathalbagan area in the city.