''BPC's Tk 48,000cr profit overstated; now to make Tk 205cr per month"

After the latest fuel price hike, Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation will make a profit of Tk 205 crore per month, provided that the dollar price continues at the rate of July.

"We have calculated that after the rise in prices, BPC will have an estimated profit of Tk 205 crore per month if dollar price is not raised compared with the price of July," said BPC Chairman ABM Azad at a press briefing at the organisation's office in Dhaka today (August 10, 2022).

He also claimed that misleading information is being spread about BPC's deposits and profits and also disagreed with the report that it had made a profit of Tk 48,000 crore in seven years from 2014-15 to 2020-21 fiscal years.

He said BPC had made a profit of about Tk 42,000 in those years, but half of the profits had to be spent importing at higher prices from the international market.

Responding to a question, he said BPC made its calculation based on fuel price in July in the international market for which the current downward trend of the price of the global market was not considered in the price adjustment.

He noted that currently BPC's overall loss is Tk 6 per litre. But it is making a profit of Tk 25 per litre in octane, and about Tk 20 in petrol.  

On the other hand, he said, the BPC is paying a tax of Tk 20.70 per litre in diesel import and Tk 23.5 per litre octane import. 

He also informed that the BPC has a 30 days consumption equivalent stock of diesel (294,319 metric tons), 19 days stock of octane (22,827 MT), 18 days stock of petrol (19,174 MT) and jet fuel of 32 days (35,780 MT).

The government hiked the price of fuel oil by a big margin with effect from August 6.

The BPC chairman said it has cash plus deposits of Tk 19,000 crore that is equivalent to paying import bills for two months of fuel consumption.