Govt to buy diesel worth Rs 1,137 cr from India

The government has decided to buy 1 lakh 30 thousand metric tonnes of diesel from India. The total cost will be Tk 1,137.96 crore. The approval was given at a meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Government Purchase held at the conference room of the Cabinet Division at the Secretariat on Tuesday.

According to the meeting sources, the proposal of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to import refined fuel oil for 2025 was approved in principle at a meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Economic Affairs on November 7, 2024.

In light of this, the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources decided to buy 1 lakh 30 thousand metric tons of diesel on the basis of negotiation with India’s state-owned Numaligarh Refinery Limited under an agreement from January to December 2025.

The cost of importing this diesel is estimated at 9 crore 32 lakh 75 thousand 364 US dollars. The amount of Bangladeshi currency is one thousand 137 crore 96 lakh taka. The price of diesel has been fixed at $ 5.50 per barrel. When the proposal was presented on behalf of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, the Advisory Council Committee approved it.

Diesel has been imported since 2016 under a 15-year agreement between Bangladesh and India. Diesel is being imported from India through the India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline from March 18, 2023, before the construction of the pipeline through rail wagons from NRL.