BANGLADESH

Authorities have raised CNG price as a precaution as they believe an inconsistent rise in public transport fares could cause unrest.

A day after the government raised diesel, petrol, octane, kerosene and furnace oil prices, the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) also raised the price of CNG to Tk 30 per unit on Monday.

The new price of CNG, a 20 percent rise, was declared to be effective from midnight.

A BERC circular said it hiked the price fearing that some CNG-fuelled transports could raise their fares even though CNG prices had not been raised. This would have caused law and order situation to deteriorate, the circular said.

The circular also explained why the standard procedure for price raise – public hearing – had been overridden for this decision. It said the tariff review process was so lengthy that the government might lose a large amount of revenue before a decision was reached.

State-owned oil-gas and minerals corporation Petrobangla proposed the government a price-hike of Tk 5 on feed gas in the morning. When approved, it sent a proposal to the BERC to raise prices at the consumer level.

The last CNG price hike was on May 12, by 49.25 percent – to Tk 24.90 from Tk 16.75 per unit.

Meanwhile, the price of feed gas (gas fields to distributors) has also been raised to Tk 23 from Tk 18.

The government on Sunday increased prices of all fuels by Tk 5 to Tk 8.

However, the CNG price raise has drawn criticism from many quarters.

CNG filling station and conversion workshop owners' leader Jakir Hossain Nayan told bdnews24.com the filling stations would face losses due to this raise.

Energy expert professor M Shamsul Alam, a teacher of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, said the government raising the price was out of order, as only the regulatory body was vested with that power.

"And not even the BERC can raise prices at their will. They must do it following a standard procedure," he added.