State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid Bipu has once more hinted at hiking gas prices.
“It has already cost Tk 140 billion to import LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas] and we’ll need Tk 140 billion more,” he said while speaking to the media on Sunday (Jun 9).
“If we are unable adjust gas prices now, we’ll have to count more subsidies,” he added.
The minister said 600 million cubic metre of LNG has already been added to the national grid while another 600 will be added.
“The gas is supplied to the consumers at a much lesser price than the actual cost,” he said.
He added in the current fiscal year the government counted nearly Tk 60 billion in subsidies and if this continues, another Tk 80 billion will be required for the upcoming fiscal year.
On the upcoming budget for 2019-20 fiscal year, Hamid said that in the upcoming budget around Tk 300 billion might be allocated for the power and energy sector in total.
He added that amongst that Tk 26 billion will be allocated for the power sector and the rest for the energy sector.
He said that a Tk 12 billion project has been undertaken to set up new gas pipelines and discourage new residential connections.