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The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has fixed the price of a 12-kg LPG (liquid petroleum gas) cylinder at Tk1,253 but its retail price has now crossed the Tk 2,000 mark. However, according to a report carried in a leading contemporary, the unilateral price hike is not uniform. The price varies from one area to another and even from one retail shop to another. If a LPG cylinder is sold at Tk1,500 somewhere, the selling price is Tk1,800 elsewhere. This means the regulatory system has broken down. The retailers are forcing customers to pay as much as they can, citing supply shortage of gas cylinders. Granted that there is an import crunch of the LPG gas because of blacklisting of 29 ships responsible for carrying this particular fuel. Thus the import of LPG plummeted from the usual 130,000-140,000 tonnes to only 90,000 tonnes last month.
This is no reason for an instant gas crisis. The LPG Operators Association of Bangladesh (LOAB), as its vice-president claims, has not raised the price of gas cylinders even though the import is 40 per cent lower in December last. So the price spiral appears to be orchestrated by the retailers on the pretext of supply shortage. Every time there is a lame excuse for hiking price of essentials. Why cannot the rule based on the moral standpoint prevail to the effect that as long as the authorities do not raise the prices, the last item would be sold at the previous rate? But any hint of supply crunch prompts a chain reaction of price escalation in this country. Involved here is a sensitive item like gas cylinders that are mostly used for cooking at the domestic level.
If the price of this fuel is atrociously raised, its impact on families and the economy will be highly adverse. Since April, 2021, the BERC has been adjusting prices of LPG cylinders every month. The purpose is to be in line with the trend of international price of this fuel. The unavailability of ships for transhipment of gas may have temporarily disrupted the supply chain due to blacklisting of almost two and a half dozens of ships by the US administration. This can be overcome gradually but it could be worse if petroleum products in the international market marked a sharp increase. When that has not happened, this profit-mongering display at the domestic level is certainly unacceptable. Those who have triggered the process are violating the law of the land and, in fact, branding themselves as the enemies of the people. Then the LOAB has not helped the cause by drastically limiting supply of gas cylinders.
If a lower middle-class or poor family have to pay Tk 2,000 for this essential item for cooking, it is sure to prove too much for them. They have been reeling from lower income compared to unrelenting inflation. Import of LPG is likely to put the country to further tests in the coming days. Such dependence on imported fuel will threaten the country's development programmes if there is no alternative to it for overcoming supply disruptions for multifarious reasons. The country has to wean away from LPG import to domestic sources of energy, including green energy. This cannot be done overnight but the process should begin with right earnest in order to explore both onshore and offshore natural gas.
As for meeting the immediate crisis, a vigorous search for ships capable of carrying LPG from the Middle East or any other source to this country's shore should be launched right now. True, international shipping is guided by strict schedules. But this is abnormal time when the powerful nations, in defiance of the United Nations charters, attack a weak nation or subject it to capricious commercial restrictions. Why those 29 ships were blacklisted is again the result of hubris of the mighty. So the country has to initiate its own agenda for overcoming the shipment problem. But the interim government is better known for its inaction. Inertia and casual approach have no place in a world riven by fractious international relations and equation.