Bangladesh will import 2.040 million (20.40 lakh) metric tons (MT) of refined petroleum from 7 state-owned entities from 6 countries for a six month period from January to June in 2023.

Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) in a virtual meeting approved a proposal of state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) in this regard on Wednesday.

The 7 state-owned entities are BSP Indonesia, ENOC UAE, IOCL India, Petrochina China, PTLCL Malaysia, PTTT Thailand and UNIPEC China.

As per the proposal, placed by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, the BPC will import the bulk refined petroleum at a total cost of Tk 18,215.52 crore.

Read more: Bangladesh wants to import petroleum from KSA at lower price: Nasrul

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting which was virtually attended by the members of the committee.

However, no detail of the proposed refined petroleum import was disclosed by the authorities concerned.

Normally, Bangladesh annually needs to import about 6.633 million metric tons of refined and crude petroleum of which 5.233 is refined and remaining 1.4 million metric tons is crude oils for a year to meet its requirements.

The cabinet body also approved another proposal of the BPC to import 60,000 metric tons of diesel from India's Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) from January to December, 2023 period at a cost of Tk 545.04 crore.

The committee also approved three contract award proposals of the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) for modernisation and capacity building of power distribution projects in Khulna Division.

All the three contracts were awarded to the BRB Cable Industries Ltd. The 2 contracts are supplying 6,650 km conductor and wire (Bare) supply at Tk 67.03 crore under Lot -1 and the supply of the same products at price under Lot-2.

Read more: Bangladesh plans to import 5.46 million MT of petroleum in 2023

Under the Lot-3, there will be supply of 1,200 km of conductor and wire (Insulated) at 18.67 crore

A proposal of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries (BCIC) received the nod of the committee to import 30,000 metric tons bulk granular urea fertilizer from Fertiglobe Distribution Limited, UAE at Tk 150.08 crore.

Another proposal of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) under the Ministry of Commerce to import 12,000 MT of sugar from Srinnova Ispat Private Ltd., Kolkata, India at a cost of Tk 70.02 crore received the nod of the committee.