Oil price hike triggers chaos at Bangladesh filling stations

People rush to buy oil at previous rates after government raised prices as much as 51.68 percent

Desperate motorcyclists scrambled for fuel at filling stations in Dhaka as the government announced the biggest jump in fuel oil prices.

Some stations stopped sales for extra profit while people rushed to the others.

Long queues formed at the filling stations that remained open overnight in Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh on Friday after the government published the notice on the new rates, effective from midnight.

At Kalyanpur in the capital city, Sahil Filling Station and Sohrab Service Station closed their gates and turned the lights off. Some enraged customers started calling the police. A worker at Sahil filling station claimed they ran out of oil.

Khaleque Service Station slowed down the sales after the announcement with hundreds of vehicles lining up for oil.

The prices of diesel and kerosene have been increased by 42.5 percent to Tk 114 per litre. Petrol prices jumped 51.16 percent to Tk 130 a litre. Octane will cost Tk 135 per litre, a 51.68 percent increase.

As motorcycles and other vehicles arrived in droves, Southern Filling Station at Tejgaon stopped serving CNG customers.

The crowds of vehicles at the filling stations situated between Mohakhali and Nabisco stretched to the road, creating gridlocks.

In the northern district of Panchagarh, crowds started to get bigger after 11 pm.

Many customers alleged the filling stations were delaying the sales intentionally to make more profit after midnight.

Officials at the stations said they were struggling to serve so many customers at a time.

Some stations in the district stopped selling oil worth over Tk 100 while some others stopped sales altogether.