Shawdesh desk:

The price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas has declined by a big margin of Tk 20.37per kg to Tk 98.17 from the previous price of Tk 118.54 for the month of April.

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission announced the new price saying that now, a 12kg LPG cylinder cost has been cut substantially by Tk 244 as a retail consumer will get it at Tk 1,178 instead of previous price of Tk 1,422 (including VAT).

Prices of other sizes of LPG cylinders – from 5.5kg to 45kg – will go down rationally, said Md Nurul Amin, the newly appointed chairman of BERC, during his maiden press briefing on Sunday at the BERC office in the city.

The new prices will be effective from 6 pm today (2 April, 2023).

However, on the sideline of the same press briefing, Md Selim Khan, president of Bangladesh LP Gas Traders Cooperative Limited, a representative body of dealers and distributors in the business, alleged that though the BERC set the new price, the LPG Operators Association of Bangladesh has verbally set the price at operators’ factory gates (wholesale points) price at Tk 1,200 for gas of a 12 kg cylinder.

A retail trader has to add at least Tk 120 to sell the 12 kg cylinder of gas to accommodate his other costs including transportation and staff costs’, he added.

BERC new chairman, however, said that the commission was planning to sit with all stakeholders to address the anomalies in the price fixation.

He also said that the BERC would ask the district administration and law enforcement agencies to check any distortion in the market and in price manipulation.

BERC officials said that the LPG price witnessed a big fall in the local market due to a decline in the prices of Saudi CP (contract price).

Last month, as per the Saudi CP, the LPG price was $733 per metric ton while the current month’s CP was set at $548.5 per MT with an increase by $184.5 per MT, he added.

Bangladeshi LPG operators normally import their products from the Middle-East Market on the basis of Saudi CP.

As per the BERC decision, the price of ‘auto gas’ (LPG used for motor vehicles) also decreased to Tk 54.90 per litre (including VAT) from previous Tk 66.22 per litre, down by Tk 11.32 per litre.

The price of LPG, marketed by state-owned LP Gas Company, will remain the same as it is locally produced with a market share of less than 5 per cent.

The LPG price witnessed the highest price at Tk 1,498 (per 12kg cylinder), in the local market in February this year following the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February last year.