Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said yesterday there is no possibility of reducing fuel oil price in the country as per the global market.
“We never adjust oil price with that in the global market. Rather, we increase it at times when our capacity decreases,” he said, replying to a reporters’ query while inaugurating the overhauled Presbyterian Church in the city.
“The existing oil price will not remain stable in the international market,” he said, adding: “It is good for the country not to decrease oil price because revenue income will increase.”
The country’s economy is expected to benefit from the dramatic fall in oil prices that continued to zoom out as of yesterday, economists said on December 5.
But, they said, the consequent consumer benefit depends on the price adjustment at the domestic market commensurate with the international price.
The cash-strapped Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation is expecting to become a profitable entity soon, as it does not require any subsidy currently, its chief told the Dhaka Tribune.
Lower oil prices if sustain should have a positive effect on domestic growth. In theory, the fall in oil prices could lead to higher purchasing power and consumer spending and hence add to real GDP.
“The impact of lower oil prices is broadly positive to oil importers like Bangladesh,” economist Mirza Azizul Islam, who was the finance adviser to the past caretaker government, said.
He said it will boost public coffer and enhance reserve, as the government has to spend billions of dollar as oil import bill every year. The fall in oil prices, therefore, translates into huge foreign exchange savings.
The price of oil, according to a BBC report published on Thursday, has halved since June.
Recent falls in the price of oil were likely to be temporary, it added, quoting Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi for Saudi Arabia, Opec’s biggest producing nation.