Energy and Mineral Resources Division’s senior secretary Anisur Rahman has said that the government will monitor the implementation of the new price of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) fixed by the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC).
“We will monitor whether the LPG is being sold at the new price fixed by the BERC,” he said while addressing a webinar on “BERC’s LPG Pricing and Its Sustainability” organised by Energy and Power magazine on Saturday.
The energy secretary’s remarks came against the backdrop of BERC’s announcement to fix the price of LPG with effect from April 12.
As per the new prices, the private companies will have to sell a 12 kg LPG at Tk 975 while LP Gas Company Ltd, the state-owned company, will sell its 12.5 kg LPG at Tk 591 at the retail level.
Also read: Pvt companies’ 12 kg LPG price fixed at Tk 975, govt’s 12.5 kg at Tk 591
But many consumers apprehend that they will not get the LPG at the prices fixed by the regulator as there is no strict monitoring by the government about its enforcement.
The energy secretary said that due to lockdown situation, it is not possible for them to strictly monitor whether the LPG is being sold at the BERC-fixed price or not.
“But after lockdown, we will be going for strict monitoring and it will be the duty of the all the concerned agencies of the government to implement the new LPG price”.
Before the price fixing by BERC, the private companies had been selling 12 kg LPG in the retail markets at Tk 1100 -Tk 1200 while those of the state-owned company over Tk 700.
Also read: ‘Stop meddling in LPG price fixing process’
About 20 private companies have been operating in the market with more than 95 percent market share by annually importing 1.2 million metric tons of bulk LPG from mainly Middle-East while the state-owned LP Gas Company is locally producing 25,000 MTs of LPG from locally produced condensates at different gas fields.
The webinar was also addressed by energy experts Dr M Tamim, Dr Ijaz Ahmed, BERC member Syed Mokbul-e-Elahi, and Bashirul Haque.
Bashundhara LPG’s Head of Marketing Zaharia Jalal made a presentation on the issue.
He said that many costs of LPG business were not considered by the BERC while fixing this price.
Also read: BERC moves to set LPG price at retail level
“As a result, the LPG operators will face trouble to make the price sustainable,” he said.
Dr M Tamim said that the BERC should have declared a pricing formula instead of fixing a price in the market.
“If a formula was declared, it would have been more effective to regulate the price,” he added.