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Fuel import spending in FY12 projected Tk 45,000 cr
Reported by: UNBconnect
Reported on: Jun 09, 2012 08:36 pm
Reported in: National

Dhaka, June 9 (UNB) - Country's petroleum fuel import in the outgoing fiscal (2011-12) has been projected to be 5.5 million metric tonnes involving a cost of Tk 45,000 crore. This projection was made in the budgetary document, titled `Power and Energy Sector Road Map: Second Update’, published by the Finance Ministry. Both the import of refined and unrefined petroleum fuels was included in the projection. As per the projection, the country will require to import 4.40 million metric tonnes of refined petroleum while the requirement of unrefined petroleum import will be 1.2 million tonnes.The petroleum import was 4.89 million tonnes in the last fiscal (2010-11), while it was 3.77 million tonnes in the 2009-10 fiscal. However, no projection was made about the petroleum requirement in the coming fiscal of 2012-13. Even nothing was mentioned about the financial cost of the petroleum import in the new fiscal year that starts July 1.But a former chairman of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) said it is certain that the of import of petroleum fuel will go up in the coming fiscal as the government has set a target to increase the power generation to 8,000 MW from existing 5,500 MW which will be fully liquid fuel based. In that case, the fuel import may cross the limit of 7 million metric tons. “So, the financial involvement of petroleum import will definitely increase,” he said adding that the amount of subsidy will also increase proportionately,” he added. Energy Division officials said possibly nothing was mentioned about the cost involvement because of the volatile situation in the international petroleum market where the price of petroleum experience frequent fluctuation. But they indicated that the monetary involvement is unlikely to come down.Officials at the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation said the influx of liquid fuel-fired rental and quick rental power plants rapidly pushed up the demand for the petroleum in the country. Budget documents show that the government has to pay a subsidy of Tk 9,100 crore in the fiscal 2011-12 and Tk 6,200 crore in the next fiscal 2012-13. The Finance Minister in his budget speech indicated that the subsidy in petroleum fuel will be lowered through adjusting the price.

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