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BB turns down yet another BPC request for fund
10th May, 2008
The central bank has turned down again an Energy Division's request for providing a US$ 1.0-billion fund to help the cash-strapped Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) foot its growing oil import cost, official said.
"The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has said no to our request for creation of a $1000- million revolving fund for helping meet the BPC's fuel import bills for both in the short and long terms," an official informed the FE.
A few months back the Energy Division sought fund worth $ 500 million from the central bank but the latter did not honour the proposal, officials mentioned.
Turning down the second request, the central bank recently informed the Energy Division that it (BB) had little scope to create such type of revolving fund for the BPC, said an official.
"The BB's negative response has upset us and it will definitely keep the BPC's financial crisis as vulnerable as ever," he lamented.
According to officials, the BPC repeated its requests to the BB for fund after the Corporation found itself in a difficult situation to cope with its ever-increasing cost for imports of petroleum products, caused by the sky-rocketing fuel prices in the global market.
The price of gasoline hit a new record of $ 125 per barrel Friday in the international market.
Due to a continuous surge in the oil prices, the BPC's overall import costs for petroleum products have been increasing alarmingly over the months, officials said.
Citing the current rising trend in the gasoline prices, they observed that the BPC's overall import costs for the current fiscal year would be much higher than the previous estimation.
"The corporation's total import cost could exceed $5.0 billion for the 2007-08 fiscal year while it was estimated to be $ 4.5 billion previously," said a senior Energy Division official.
The BPC, according to officials, has fixed the target of importing 3.8 million tonnes of petroleum products - both refined and crude - to meet the country's demand for the same.
Release link:
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/search_index.php?page=detail_news&news_id=33074
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