Export of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to India has been suspended for more than one year due to onslaught of the deadly coronavirus pandemic in the South Asian region as well as in the world.
Bangladesh could export LPG to India only for about three months after export inauguration of the cooking fuel in January 2020.
Two privately-owned Bangladeshi firms -- Omera Petroleum and Beximco LPG -- halted LPG export to India since March 26, 2020, when the government had announced the first lockdown, terming it public holiday.
"We initiated export of the cooking fuel again a couple of months back," chief executive officer of Omera Petroleum Ltd Shamsul Haque Ahmed told the FE on Sunday.
But as the second wave of the deadly coronavirus approached last month, causing severe casualty in the neighbouring country, the export plan was shelved, he said.
LPG export to India might not resume again until the pandemic eased in the region, Mr Haque feared.
He did not disclose the LPG export price of to India, terming it confidential.
Omera and Beximco initiated commercial LPG export to India from the first week of January 2020 with an initial consignment of around 1,000 tonnes per month.
They initiated exporting LPG to Tripura, the landlocked north-eastern state of India, by road.
Both the firms were exporting around 500 tonnes of the fuel per month each, which they were planning to increase fivefold to 2,500 tonnes per month.
The state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) was importing LPG from Bangladesh under a deal, signed between the two countries on October 5, 2019 in presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during her visit to India.
The LPG-carrying tankers were shipping the fuel to Bishalgarh of Tripura through Bangladesh's Bibirbazar land border point of Cumilla on highways.
IOC bottled the fuel in its Bishalgarh bottling plant, from where it marketed the product, used especially for cooking purpose, to consumers.
Bangladeshi firms could supply LPG to Bishalgarh of Tripura within a portion of a day, passing only around 200-km distance by road.
Omera and Beximco were, however, exporting LPG to India after importing the fuel from Middle-Eastern suppliers.
India's northeastern states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura -- have a total population of around 60 million. Many of them rely on LPG for cooking.
Bangladesh, in the mean time, fixed the retail prices of LPG for domestic market for the first time, as the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) announced the new prices with immediate effect from April 12.
The commission fixed the LPG price, considering Saudi Aramco contract price of March 2021.
The retail price of each 12.5-kg LPG cylinder, to be provided by the state-run LP Gas Ltd, is Tk 591; while each 12-kg LPG cylinder, to be provided by private operators, is Tk 975.
The retail level LPG price by private sector is Tk 81.30 per kg with value added tax (VAT).
The price of LPG supplied through reticulated system or centralized storage system is Tk 79.01 per kg including VAT.
The auto gas, the kind of LPG used in vehicles, price is Tk 47.92 per litre.
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