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The government incurred an additional expenditure of Tk 23,000 crore on petroleum fuel imports over the last six months due to currency depreciation and volatile global energy benchmarks, forcing the national exchequer to absorb a staggering operational deficit of Tk 109 crore every single day on domestic diesel sales alone, senior energy officials disclosed on Wednesday (September 23).
Addressing an economic symposium in Dhaka, officials from the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) and the Energy and Mineral Resources Division clarified that despite recent upward revisions in retail pump prices, the domestic market price of diesel in Bangladesh remains significantly lower than prevailing rates across neighboring South Asian economies.
Supervisory records reveal that the state-owned BPC was compelled to secure heavy foreign exchange credit lines to sustain uninterrupted shipments of refined diesel and crude oil to meet soaring demand from irrigation pumps, road cargo freight, and public transport operators.
Speaking during the seminar on energy economics in Dhaka on Wednesday, Energy Division official Zahed Hossain stated, "The state has shouldered immense fiscal strain to insulate productive industrial and agricultural sectors from global price volatility. Even after absorbing Tk 23,000 crore in extraordinary import outlays, we are still losing Tk 109 crore daily on diesel subsidies, making market-based adjustments mathematically unavoidable."
Economists and trade bodies warned that while subsidy rationalization is necessary to safeguard sovereign foreign exchange reserves, escalating fuel overheads threaten to fuel consumer price inflation, elevate transportation tariffs, and squeeze household purchasing power unless counterbalanced by targeted social safety nets.
https://thedailyexpress.news/news/business/1f1b70e5-85d7-6120-9464-8df9bf33269c