Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has sought Tk 2,000 crore on urgent basis to clear loan payment and fuel import bills for the month of December and January.
Chairman Eunusur Rahman of the state-run BPC has sought the fund from the ministry of finance through a letter last Monday, said the ministry officials.
The BPC chairman apprehended that the fuel oil imports might disrupt badly if the fund was not released timely, said the officials.
BPC sought the fund as subsidy despite the government increased fuel oil prices by up to Tk 34 a litre between January 2011 and January 2013.
The energy division has estimated that annual subsidy requirement of BPC ranged between Tk 3,500 crore and Tk 4,000 crore in the 2013–14, which was Tk 10,551 crore in the 2011–12 because of diesel and furnace oil demand of the short-term rental plants.
Of the amount, Tk 1,000 will be required for loan repayment to the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, member of Islamic Development Bank.
Rest of the fund will be spent for paying the fuel import bills and other expenditures.
Eunusur Rahman said the BPC still incurred losses of Tk 8.92 for marketing a litre of diesel and Tk 8.84 for one litre of kerosane.
BPC, however, was making profits from sales of petrol and octane by up to Tk 8 a litre and furnace oil by Tk 1.5 a litre.
It incurred losses of Tk 15.09 in July, Tk 149.76 crore in August and Tk 281.54 crore in September, he said.
He said Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation struck fresh deals with eight Singapore-based companies for importing 5.1 million tonnes of petroleum products from January to December 2014.
Under the deals, BPC would import 3.8 million tonnes of refined oil and 1.3 million tonnes of crude oil.
The refined petroleum products will include 2.7 million tonnes of diesel, 0.76 million tonnes of furnace oil, 0.3 million tonnes of jet fuel, 30,000 tonnes of octane and 10,000 tonnes of kerosene.
It has been estimated that the requirement for 3.7 million tonnes of diesel and kerosene, 8-10 lakh tonnes of furnace oil and 2.95 lakh tonnes of petrol and octane in the current fiscal year which will end in June 2014.
