Dhaka, Jan 08: Bangladesh may adopt Indian system of floating oil prices and dismantle administered price mechanism in the face of strong opposition to its recent decision to hike fuel oil prices.
"The government is envisaging floating prices of fuel oils in open market relaxing state control that officials think would create certain distortions", a private news agency said quoting State Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources A K M Mosharraf Hossain.
Consumers have alleged that government only increases price citing higher prices at international market, but never lowers when prices go down. The government cited hike in international oil prices and smuggling to India as the prime reasons for the increase in prices of petroleum products.
Hossain, who announced the latest price hike, said India has a floating pricing system and "that's why we observe that prices of oils in Kolkata mark both rise and fall depending on the international market." An independent Energy Regulatory Commission will soon determine the prices of petroleum products, Hossain said. Bureau Report