Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has ruled out the possibility of reducing the diesel price now.
“Whenever the loan taken by the BPC (Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation) will be repaid, then we’ll reduce the diesel price, if necessary,” the Prime Minister said while responding to a supplementary question from independent MP Haji M Selim during the PM’s question-answer session in Parliament on Wednesday.
PM Hasina said her government had provided subsidy when the diesel price was high on the international market, resulting the BPC to take around Tk 38,000 crore as loan.
Other than that there is a considerable amount of money which still remains unpaid against VAT and duty and this is the first time the BPC has been able to make some savings, the PM informed the House.
Hasina also alleged that when the price was high in the international market no MP came up with any demand to increase the price as it was is high on the international market.
“No one said anything in favour of that. Even when we increased the price there was destruction, hartal and so many incidents,” Hasina said.
The premier said the BPC is currently repaying its loan and has already repaid Tk 5000 crore.
“It has to repay more. There are VAT and tax that remain unpaid amounting to Tk 15000-16000 crore,” PM Hasina told the parliament.
Source: Ittefaq