World News: The Bangladesh government has taken a major decision amid the ongoing military conflict in West Asia (Middle East) and skyrocketing prices of crude oil in the international market. Citing huge financial losses facing Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), dwindling foreign exchange reserves and the threat of fuel smuggling to neighboring countries, the government has directly increased the prices of all types of fuel oil by BDT 20 per litre.
According to the official information released by Bangladesh Energy and Mineral Resources Division, the main objective of this price increase is to bring the domestic prices at par with the international market and to control the increasing losses of BPC. After the implementation of the new rates, the price of diesel has now increased from BDT 115 to BDT 135 per liter, while octane will increase from BDT 145 to BDT 165 per liter. Whereas the new price of petrol has been fixed at BDT 160 per liter and the price of kerosene has been fixed at BDT 155 per liter.
The Energy Department clarified that despite oil prices more than doubling in the international market between March and August, the government had kept the prices stable in the interest of the public. However, during this period BPC had to suffer a huge loss of approximately BDT 22,875.66 crore. In the present circumstances, the corporation was incurring a loss of approximately BDT 109 crore per day on diesel alone.
Furthermore, fuel was extremely cheap in Bangladesh compared to neighboring countries such as India (Kolkata), Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka, creating a greater risk of cross-border smuggling. The government hopes that this increase of BDT 20 per liter will help in reducing BPC's annual losses of about BDT 10,000 crore.