Energy Bangla

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Dhaka Tuesday,  Mar 19, 2024

Household Gas To Generate Most Profit Despite Least Usage

Rafiqul Bashar

The state-run Petrobangla will earn a noticeable amount from selling
the pipelined gas to household consumers at the newest price. In fact,
household gas will generate the highest profit in the upcoming months,
while the household users consume the least amount of gas!

The government has recently hiked the price of natural gas, which drew
flak from various sectors including citizens from all walk of life.
The extra amount that will be collected from the newly adjusted prices
will secure the countries energy security, said the government
officials. However, after analysing the related financial reports, it
was found that, almost half of the extended income of the government
would be collected from the household consumers while they consume
only 12 percent of the total gas!

The newly adjusted price of gas will add, BDT 4,185 crore of more
profit to the state, among the amount BDT 1,885 crore will come from
the household consumers and BDT 2,300 crore will come from rest of the
consumers of natural gas.

The price of gas was raised by 22.73 percent on an average. The new
price of gas will enact in two phases, first from 1st March and the
second phase will be enforced from 1st June of this year.

Currently, the government earns a total amount of BDT 18,359 crore by
selling natural gas, among the amount household consumers’
contribution is BDT 5,699 crore. The latest price hike will boost the
total income to BDT 22,544 crore, where household consumers will
provide BDT 7,584 crore.

Most of the gas used for generation of electricity, a handful 43
percent of the country’s total gas goes for power generation. A 12
percent hike in the price of gas in this sector will add up to a
profit of BDT 425 crore more to the state-owned Petrobangla.

CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) run vehicles consume only 5 percent of
the total gas. According to the new price of gas in this sector, it
will add BDT 669 crore of more revenue to the state.

At the same way, the new price of industrial gas will add up to BDT
452 crore of more revenue to the state, while this sector consumes 15
percent of the total gas.

Captive power generators consume a 16 percent of the total gas and the
newly fixed price of gas for this sector, which is only a 15 percent
hike, will earn BDT 579 crore more for the state. However, according
to the experts, the price of gas for this sector should be raised
more.

The commercial sector will add BDT 306 crore more profit to
Petrobangla for to the newly raised price of gas.

Energy expert Prof Shamsul Alam said that, household consumers
consumes only 12 percent of the total gas nonetheless the government
raised the price by 50 percent for them. The government will earn
revenue for sure but, it will add a huge burden to the lifestyle of
the mass people, he added. There was no need to raise the price while
all the distribution companies were in profit. The government raised
the price to make a fund for importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG),
but the added price of gas may make the life of common people
disastrous as the price of various commodities are also about to go
high soon, he added.

Aziz Khan one of the members of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory
Commission (BERC) said that, there are no other countries in the world
that provide pipelined gas to household consumers at such a low price.
The price of LPG was always higher than pipelined gas; to adjust the
gap between LPG and pipelined gas, the price hike was mandatory, he
added.

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