Govt approves import of 75 lakh tonnes fuel oil for 2022

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs Thursday approved import 75 lakh tonnes of fuel oil for 2022, said Additional Secretary to the Cabinet Division Shamsul Arefin.

After emerging from a meeting of the committee chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, he replied to the queries of the journalists.   

"Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) under the Energy and Mineral Resources Division has received an approval to import 16 lakh tonnes of crude oil for 2022 through direct purchase from Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)," he told reporters.

Apart from this, BPC has been approved to import around 58 lakh tonnes of refined fuel oil next year.

Usually, the finance minister himself briefs the reporters and answers various questions of the journalists, but he did not attend the briefing Thursday.

Additional Secretary Shamsul Arefin was asked if there was any discussion at the meeting about the probable impacts of the diesel and kerosene price hike on Wednesday night.

"No," he replied.

On Thursday, another cabinet committee meeting on public purchase, chaired by the finance minister, also approved the import of 80,000 tonnes of high sulphur furnace oil from Unipec Singapore Pte Ltd for November and December at a cost of Tk365 crore.

The committee approved the import of 10,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid for Chattogram-based TSP Complex under Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC). Dhaka Agro-Industrial Complex will supply the acid at Tk61 crore.

Besides, BCIC was approved to import 30,000 tonnes of bulk urea from Saudi Basic Industries Corporation at a cost of Tk195 crore and 30,000 tonnes of bagged urea fertiliser from Qatar at a cost of Tk198 crore.

Moreover, the purchase committee approved Tk274 crore public work spending for the construction of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation's "FDC Complex". Biswas Trading & Construction got the construction work.