Govt to cut fuel price in Jan: Muhith

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith

Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Wednesday said the price of fuel oil will be curtailed in January next year.

“I wanted to reduce the oil price in this December, but could not do so. It will now be done in January,” said the finance minister while talking to reporters at his office at the Bangladesh Secretariat.

Muhith said, “We need to go to the prime minister [with the issue], because it is her ministry.”

The finance minister said the government is going to take such a decision to benefit country’s economy. “Oil price affects every sector and that is why, we have recommended oil price reduction.”
Mentioning that the fuel price was slightly adjusted in the outgoing calendar year, Muhith said, “The adjustment was done based on US $80 per barrel [of crude oil in the international market].”
He said the oil price had gone down to US $40 per barrel in the international market, but it has again increased. “According to me, the best price will be around US $60 per barrel.”
The oil prices have started decreasing in the international market since the past two years, but the government didn’t reduce the oil prices in local market despite such demand.
The government finally cut down the oil prices on 24 April this year.
The prices of Diesel and Kerosene were cut to Tk 65 per litre in the retail market, Octane to Tk 89 per litre, and Petrol to Tk 86 per.
The fuel prices were hiked in 2013 in line with the international market and the prices of Diesel and Kerosene were fixed at Tk 68 per litre, Petrol at Tk 96 and Octane at Tk 99.