Gas prices rising due to graft: BNP

The rising price of gas is linked to graft, BNP Joint Senior Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi alleged on Monday.

“The gas companies have doubled their prices only nine months after the last hike. The companies are turning a profit, so why has the government decided to raise prices?”, he said.

“It is because of graft. This is simply a way to fill the pockets of the government and its supporters. On behalf of the BNP, I would like to condemn and protest this unfair and anti-people price hike."

Last August, the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) proposed a doubling of the price of gas for residential use and a 42 percent increase in the price of gas for commercial and industrial purposes.

At a hearing on Aug 8, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd proposed raising the monthly price of single burner stoves from Tk 600 to Tk 1500, and the price of double burners from Tk 650 to Tk 1200.

The price of gas for residential use and a few other sectors had previously increased on Sep 1, 2015.

During the press conference at the BNP headquarters in Naya Paltan Rizvi said : "The lives of regular people are hard enough as it is. In such a situation, raising the price of gas impacts them adversely all the more.”

Factories find it increasingly difficult to work their furnaces due to low gas supply at most times of day, said Rizvi.

“Businessmen have told me that the cost of textile production has increased dramatically since the price of gas rose,” he said. “It has become very difficult for them to compete in the global market.”

“In their opinion, a 140 percent increase of the price of gas at this time will significantly harm  our RMG, leather products, shipbuilding and other industries, and also affect small and large enterprises.