The people of Kashba upazila in Brahmanbaria district have been, for years, seeing the gas pipelines that run right through their villages, carry cheap natural fuel from the nearby Titas Gas field to the household kitchens in major cities and towns.
However, they had never been fortunate enough to have that gas light up the burners in their own kitchens. Despite the abundance of natural gas passing through the pipes right under their noses, they have had to rely on cylinder gas, firewood and kerosene which are a lot more expensive.
Demanding an end to such disparity in gas distribution in the country, people of Kashba on Thursday blockaded the Dhaka-Chittagong rail route.
Locals hoisted a red flag to halt the Chittagong-bound Jalalabad Express at the outer section of the Brahmanbaria Railway Station as a token of protest against the deprivation.
While a residential user in a nearby district town or a divisional city has to pay a maximum Tk450 a month for 24-hour-gas supply through pipeline, the people of many other places like Kashba must spend five to eight times higher for having clean fuel in their kitchens in the form of cylinder gas.
A 12.5kg cylinder of Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) costs them around Tk1,600 to Tk1,700, although the government-fixed price of a cylinder of LPG is less than half of that amount, i.e. Tk700.
A medium-sized family needs three such cylinders in two months, amounting to an average Tk2,500 monthly expenditure on clean fuel.
Conventional substitutes like firewood and kerosene are also nowhere near as cheap as pipelined gas.
A four-member family usually consumes about 20 litres of kerosene or three to four maunds (40kg) of firewood every month, putting the total costs at Tk1200 to Tk1500. A litre of kerosene costs Tk68 while the price of one maund of firewood in rural areas is Tk150 to Tk200. Even if anybody wants to use biogas, a green energy, a Tk25,000-Tk30,000 expenditure is needed upfront to set up the plant.
Experts say these figures put too much burden on the poor users while the urban users, on the other hand, with relatively higher family incomes enjoy much cheaper natural gas from pipelines. The discrimination exists not only between urban and rural users but also among different regions.
Satkhira villager Shahinul Islam said the price was killing them. “The exorbitant fuel price empties our pocket due to indifferent attitude of the government to ensure fair supply.”
Very recently, Rajshahi city became a part of the national gas pipeline grid, but Barisal, Khulna and Rangpur divisions are still far away from getting cheap and green natural fuel. According to state-owned financial institution Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCL), only 3% of the population, primarily based in urban locales, uses natural gas delivered by pipeline.
Professor M Shamsul Alam, energy advisor of the Consumer Association of Bangladesh, told the Dhaka Tribune that like the previous years this year’s budget too lacks any announcement for improving the situation.
“It may not be possible for the government to provide natural gas to all household but it can take steps to reduce price of LPG.” Alam said.
Prominent economist AB Mirza Azizul Islam said the government should withdraw the increased tax on the import of LPG cylinder proposed in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The budget for the 2013-14 fiscal proposed to raise customs duty on imported cylinder from the existing 3% to 10%.
Energy expert Prof Ijaz Hossain said no government had ever taken any step to curb discrimination. He suggested increasing subsidy for the construction of Biogas plants and decreasing the price of LPG.
Secretary of the government’s Energy Division Md Mozammel Haque Khan said the government was willing to provide energy for cooking at reasonable price but was not capable to do so right now.
