Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the government would not reduce prices of fuel oil right at the moment despite the sharp fall in international market.
“We won’t cut fuel oil prices right now,” he told journalists yesterday after a per-budget meeting with 29 senior secretaries at the Secretariat.
Finance minister’s announcement came when Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation stands above profit margin amid declining global oil prices.
He also argued in favour of the government’s stance that if reduced there are fears of smuggling fuel oil to neighbouring India due to a huge gap in prices.
Crude oil is now being sold at $60 a barrel in the international market.
AMA Muhith said they would rationalise the subsidy amount meant for the BPC in the next fiscal year.
Besides, in reply to another question, finance minister said there was no problem to bring more people under the electricity supply network as the power generation capacity is just to cross 11,000MW.
