Fuel price cut from midnight

After months of criticism over high oil price despite an international plunge, the government will lower fuel cost that will be effective after midnight tonight.

Petrol and octane prices will come down by Tk 10 while diesel and kerosene cost will be cut by Tk 3 per litre, Mir Mohammad Aslam Uddin, senior public relation officer of the energy ministry, told The Daily Star.

A gazette notification was issued in this regard this evening, he said.

Earlier this afternoon, Nasrul Hamid, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources, told the media at his office that the new prices of fuel oil will be effective after midnight tonight.

Oil prices in the international market have been falling since 2014. However, the government did not lower the oil prices, saying that it would help state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to make profit and flourish.

Oil prices dropped to as low as $27.65 a barrel in January this year before rebounding recently to $40 a barrel, putting further pressure on the government to lower domestic fuel prices.

But the government has been defiant against adjusting the prices to allow the BPC to repay its loans and recoup the losses it had incurred between fiscal 1999-2000 and 2014-15.

Now that the state-run BPC has admitted that all its bank loans have been repaid and that it is counting profits, pressure is on the government to reduce fuel prices.