The Cabinet has approved the final draft of two laws formulated to better regulate the country’s petroleum and ship recycling industries.
The proposed laws, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation Law 2015 and Bangladesh Ship Recycling Law 2015, were approved at the Cabinet’s regular meeting at the Secretariat yesterday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in chair.
Cabinet Secretary M Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan briefed reporters after the meeting.
He said the petroleum bill was approved, subject to the vetting of the Ministry of Law, to regulate the import, storage and transportation of petroleum more efficiently by making the existing law more time-befitting.
“The Energy and Mineral Resources Division placed the draft in Bangla in today’s (yesterday) meeting in line with an earlier cabinet decision after necessary review and updating of the Petroleum Law 1934 and the Petroleum Amendment Ordinance 1986.”
Rules will also have to be followed under the law on petroleum production, mixing, refining, recycling and reuse, he added.
Strict measures has been adopted to punish whoever violates the law, Mosharraf said.
Referring to the draft, he said offenders who do not provide information regarding any accident to the authorities concerned will be subject to six-month jail, or a Tk10,000 fine, or both, while earlier it was three-month jail and Tk5,000 fine.
If the offence is repeated, the punishment will be raised to one year in jail, or Tk20,000 fine, or both.
Meanwhile, the draft of the ship recycling law was approved in principle at the cabinet meeting to limit the industry to a designated area considering environmental hazards.
Similar to the petroleum bill, the recycling bill also has the provision of strict punishment.
He said a recycling zone and a board would be formed as per the proposed law, and the board would be formed along with the relevant ministry, organisations, representatives of the Ship Re-cycling Association and others.
“Any person or company that tries to establish a shipyard or import ships without the board’s permission will be sentenced with a year in jail, or fined Tk10-30 lakh, or both,” Mosharraf said.
