CNG stations set for Jul 30 shutdown over commission hike

Owners warn they will close stations indefinitely from Aug 23

CNG filling station owners across Bangladesh have announced a strike over four demands, chief among them raising the commission on sales from Tk 8 to Tk 13.96 per cubic metre.

They have called the strike for Jul 30.

All filling stations nationwide will remain shut from 6am to midnight that day.

If the demands remain unresolved, the Bangladesh CNG Filling Station and Conversion Workshop Owners Association has warned of an indefinite shutdown starting Aug 23.

The association announced the programme at a press conference at Akram Tower in Dhaka's Bijoynagar on Tuesday.

Its leaders says the fixed Tk 8 commission per cubic metre of CNG sold has remained unchanged for nearly 11 years, since Sept 1, 2015, even as inflation, worker wages, electricity prices, the dollar exchange rate, bank guarantee commissions and interest costs have all risen over that period.

Because the government fixes CNG purchase and retail prices, station owners said they had no scope to pass the additional costs on to customers.

Alongside increasing the commission, the association demanded automatic commission adjustments whenever the gas price for CNG production rises, an end to taking additional security deposits from existing customers after gas price hikes, and a reduction in licence fees, renewal charges and access road lease fees imposed by government agencies.

It presented two calculations to justify raising the commission by Tk 5.96 per cubic metre.

According to its estimates, electricity tariffs have increased seven times since 2015.

Following the latest increase on Jun 3, a CNG station's monthly electricity bill will rise by around 20 percent, requiring an additional Tk 2.46 per cubic metre to offset the cost.

It also said another Tk 3.50 per cubic metre is needed to cover higher operating expenses caused by inflation, increased minimum wages and changes in foreign exchange rates.

Association leaders said a technical committee under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and Petrobangla had previously recommended increasing the commission by Tk 2.98 per cubic metre.

They, however, said the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) approved only a Tk 1 increase in 2015, leaving the remaining Tk 1.98 recommendation unimplemented.

They claim the failure to increase the commission has put around Tk 50 billion in investment in the CNG sector at risk.

Association leaders also said repeated attempts to meet the energy minister and the BERC chairman to present their demands had been unsuccessful.