Petrobangla, a government-owned national gas company in Bangladesh, wants full-time magistrates to conduct drives to reduce the company's system loss.
They are confident that regular drives will effectively curb illegal gas connections.
Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company recently claimed to have reduced its system loss by 14% through conducting regular raids.
Other distribution companies are facing similar challenges with gas system losses. Due to their limited campaign efforts, significant gas theft continues to occur, resulting in substantial revenue losses for the government.
Previously, only domestic gas was supplied. But now both domestic and imported gas is being distributed. Importing gas requires a substantial amount of foreign currency, putting pressure on the government's finances.
Concerns have been voiced that if gas theft continues, the resulting financial losses could prove challenging to overcome.
What Petrobangla wants
Meanwhile, Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker has emphasized the need for magistrates to bolster these efforts.
He discussed the matter at the monthly coordination meeting of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division.
He told the meeting that it is important to have full-time magistrates to reduce the system loss of the distribution company.
He said the Ministry of Public Administration can appoint two or three officials from the Energy and Mineral Resources Division to work as magistrates. Accordingly, a new proposal will be sent from Petrobangla, Zanendra Nath Sarker added.
He said a permanent executive magistrate has been attached to the division while Deputy Secretary SM Zakaria and Deputy Secretary Md Jahangir Alam have been appointed to take forward the work of disconnecting illegal gas connections and pipelines.
During the meeting, a joint secretary said the Ministry of Public Administration has already been contacted to delegate magisterial powers under Sheikh Shahidul Islam. A letter was sent to the Cabinet Division from the Ministry of Public Administration in this regard. But there is no expected response in this regard.
State minister’s directive
Last week, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid visited the Titas office.
He directed the distribution companies to disconnect all illegal gas connections.
The state minister said many customers are using gas illegally, and some of them are paying their electricity bills regularly to Titas Bank accounts. “These ‘ghost customers’ have to be identified by going to their houses.
An official of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, requesting anonymity, said: "No matter how hard we and the distribution company try, if there is no full-time magistrate, this work will not be speeded up."
