Petroleum prices cut as automatic pricing kicks in

The government has reduced the price of octane by Tk 4, petrol by Tk 3, diesel and kerosene by Tk 0.75 per litre.

The new prices based on the previous month’s average rate in the global market were put in effect at 12:00am yesterday.

Each litre of diesel and kerosene now cost Tk 108.25, petrol Tk 122, and octane Tk 126, according to a statement issued by the energy and mineral resources ministry.

Fuel prices will be adjusted every month from now on, it said.

The government introduced a system of automatically setting fuel prices on February 29, complying with a condition for the International Monetary Fund’s $4.7 billion loan.

In India, a litre of diesel costs Tk 133 and petrol Tk 152, the statement added.

According to a ministry gazette, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) now sells a litre of diesel at Tk 99.98, petrol at Tk 111.29, octane at Tk 115.12 and kerosene at Tk 100.85 to three state owned oil distributors.

For the oil distributors, Padma, Meghna and Jamuna, the profit margin has increased from Tk 0.50 to Tk 0.80 for each litre of diesel and from Tk 0.60 to Tk 0.90 for petrol, according to the gazette.

Dealers and agents will get Tk 2.97 from the sale of each litre of diesel, Tk 2.10 from kerosene, Tk 5.13 from octane and Tk 5.04 from petrol, which was Tk 2.77 from diesel, Tk 1.62 kerosene, Tk 4.86 octane, and Tk 4.72 petrol.

From the sale of each litre of fuel, the BPC now gets Tk 0.25 for its development fund, up from the previous Tk 0.10.