The consumers of Liquefied Petroleum Gas are not getting the benefit of government announced lower price as dealers are still supplying LPG at double the price at which they are supposed to sell the kitchen fuel.
In the absence of market monitoring, 12,000 dealers of government provided LPG are cashing more than Tk 100 crore a year from the market, informed sources said.
Kudrat-E-Elahi, managing director of the state-run LP Gas Limited, last week told New Age that the price of a 12.5 kg cylinder of LPG should not be more than Tk 700 within a 40 kilometre range of a depot.
Following a demand of the dealers, the government has reduced a 12.5 kg cylinder of LPG price to Tk 700 from Tk 1,000 in two steps in 2009, saying that the cheaper price would encourage the consumers to use LPG, said an official of the Energy Division.
‘Recently, they have approached once again to further reduce the price of government supplied LPG with the same argument. But we will not reduce the LPG price as the consumers do not get its benefit,’ he added.
But dealers across the country are selling LPG supplied by state-run LP Gas Ltd between Tk 1,350 and Tk 1,450per cylinder.
At present, LP Gas Ltd, a subsidiary of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, markets 20,000 tonnes of LPG in around 16,00000 cylinders produced by Eastern Refinery Ltd and the natural gas fractionation plant of Kailashtila gas field in Sylhet against the annual demand for 1,00,000 tonnes.
The rest of the demand is met by four private importers – Bashundhara, Totalgaz, Kleenheat and Jamuna.
The Energy Division official said that a small number of cylinders were distributed among selective consumers like few military personnel and government high officials at the real price and rest were sold at prices in line with the price of private sector LPG companies.
He estimated that the dealers were cashing about Tk 100 crore extra money from the market though selling government supplied LPG at exorbitantly high prices.
In most of the cases, the dealers erase the seal of the state-run company from the cylinders and sell them as imported LPG marketed by the private companies.
Dealers are now selling 12 kg LPG cylinders of four import-based private firms at Tk 1,250 to Tk 1,300 across the country as the importers supply them at Tk 1,100 per cylinder.
-With New Age input
