Fuel price hike to help BPC make a profit of 205C per month
The BPC is making a profit of Tk25 per litre in octane, and about Tk20 in petrol, says the chairman
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Fuel price hike to help BPC make a profit of 205C per month
The BPC is making a profit of Tk25 per litre in octane, and about Tk20 in petrol, says the chairmanFile Photo Reuters
UNB
August 11, 2022 1:38 AM
After the latest fuel price hike Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will make a profit of Tk205 crore per month if dollar price continues with the rate of the month of July. But if the dollar rate goes higher, BPC will incur a loss of Tk47 crore per month.
The estimate was disclosed by BPC chairman ABM Azad at a press briefing at the organization’s Dhaka office on Wednesday.
“We have calculated that after the rise in prices, BPC will have an estimated profit of Tk205 crore per month if dollar price is not raised compared with the price of July”, he told reporters.
He noted that currently BPC’s overall loss is Tk6 per litre. But it is making a profit of Tk25 per litre in octane, and about Tk20 in petrol.
On the other hand, he said, the BPC is paying a tax of Tk20.70 per litre in diesel import and Tk23.5 per litre octane import.
He also informed that the BPC has a 30 days' consumption equivalent stock of diesel (294,319 metric tons), 19 days stock of octane (22,827 metric tons), 18 days stock of petrol (19,174 mt) and jet fuel of 32 days (35,780 mt).
The government hiked the price of fuel oil by a big margin with effect from August 6.
According to the release, diesel price has been increased by Tk34 to Tk114 per litre while octane price hiked by Tk46 to Tk135 and petrol by Tk44 to Tk130.
Earlier, in November last year, the government increased the price of diesel and kerosene by Tk15 to Tk80 per litre. As a result, the bus fare was disproportionately increased by around 27% and the launch fare by 35%.
The BPC made the recent upward adjustment in the fuel prices when the downward trend continues at the international market.
A document provided by the Centre for Policy Dialogue shows that the price of Brent crude has declined to $93.9 per barrel on August 8 from $100 per barrel on August 1.
The BPC chairman said that it has cash plus deposits of Tk19,000 crore which is equivalent to pay import bills for two months consumption of fuel.
He also claimed that misleading information is being spread by different quarters about BPC’s deposits and profits and also disagreed with the report that it had made a profit of Tk48,000 crore in seven years from 2014-15 to 2020-21 fiscal years.
He said BPC had made a profit of about Tk42,000 in those years, but half of the profits had to be spent to import at higher prices from the international market.
Responding to a question, he said The BPC made its calculation on the basis of fuel price of July at the international market for which the current downward trend of price of global market was not considered in the price adjustment.