In Chatmohar upazila of Pabna, dealers and retailers are selling Liquefied Natural Gas (LPG) at a much higher price than the government-fixed price, ignoring the rules and regulations.
In the absence of administrative monitoring, dealers are charging higher prices from retailers. So retailers in turn are also being forced to sell LP gas at higher prices. As a result, the consumers are the one that are always being cheated.
Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) last adjusted the price of LPG on June 30 in line with the global market. At the consumer level, BERC fixed the price of 12 kg cylinders of LPG at Tk 891, including VAT in the private sector.
This decision came effective from July 1. This price includes Saudi contact price of 12 kg LPG of Tk 537, ship fare and trader's premium charge of Tk 97, other charges of Tk 6, storage and bottling charges of Tk 143, VAT of Tk 57, distributor charge of Tk 24 and transport cost and retailer charge of Tk 27.
At this rate, a distributor can charge 12 kg LPG at a maximum price of Tk 864 and the retailers cannot charge more than Tk 891 for the same. Even though this is supposed to happen, neither the distributors nor the retailers are selling LPG at the actual fixed price.
Although the maximum retail price of 12 kg LPG for the month of June was fixed at Tk 842, the actual selling price for the cylinders were much higher than that in Chatmohar.
A visit in various retail shops in Chatmohar on Sunday revealed that dealers were selling 12 kg cylinders of Bashundhara LPG at Tk 1,000, Omera at Tk 990, Jamuna at Tk 990, Beximco at Tk 990 and G Gas at Tk 970.
Bashundhara LPG dealer Bikash Saha's manager Bishwanath said they were selling 12 kg cylinders of Bashundhara LPG for Tk 1,000. They are buying LPG from the company at this price and they are unable to making any profit from the sale, he added.
Manik Hossain, manager of G Gas dealer Shibli Sadiq Rashed, said they were selling 12 kg LPG cylinders to retailers at Tk 970.
Rajeev, the manager of a local Jamuna LPG dealer said, “We are selling the cylinders for Tk 990 at wholesale and Tk 1,030 to 1,040 at retail level.
The retailers are selling LPG at Tk 1,020 to 1,050 per 12 kg. They said, “We are taking extra Tk 30 with our buying price for transportation cost and profit”.
Meanwhile, a crisis was caused by the fact that most dealers did not sell LPG on the pretext of lockdown on last Thursday and Friday.
Several consumers, including Bipradas Sarkar of Haripur village in the upazila, said no dealer or retailer in Chatmohar was selling LPG at the price fixed by the government.
“The maximum retail price of 12 kg LPG is Tk 891 but retailers are selling it at Tk 1,020 to Tk 1,050. We are forced to buy LPG at extra price. We are being cheated of Tk 100 to 150 per cylinder”, they added.
In this regard, Chatmohar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Saikat Islam said, “No dealer or retailer can sell LPG at a price higher than the price fixed by the government. I will look into the matter very soon and take legal action if necessary”.