Cabinet body okays proposals for import of 3 million MTs of petroleum oils, other products

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) in a meeting on Wednesday approved a number of proposals including the import of 3.065 million metric tons of petroleum oils from foreign suppliers in 2024.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal presided over the meeting.

As per the proposals, moved by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will import the entire petroleum oils to meet the local requirements.

Of these, 1.5 million (15 lakh) MTs are crude oil and the remaining 1.565 million (15.65 lakh) MTs are refined petroleum.

As per the proposals, some 800,000 MTs of light Arabian Light Crude (ALC) oil will be imported from Saudi Aramco at a cost of Tk 6,407.35 crore while 700,000 MTs of crude oil will be imported from Adnoc of Abu Dhabi at a cost of Tk5,808.52 crore.

The proposed 1.5 million MTs of refined petroleum oils will be imported from January to June period in 2024 through international quotation process from different suppliers at an approximate value of Tk13,599.79 crore.

Annually, Bangladesh requires about 6.5 million MTs of petroleum fuels of which it imports 1.5 million MTs of crude oils while the remaining is refined petroleum oils of different types.

The diesel dominates the import quantity.

The CCGP approved a proposal to set up a 100 MW wind power plant in Satkhira district under private sector sponsorship from which the government will purchase electricity.

As per proposal, the Sustainable Energy International Ltd will set up the plant and the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will purchase electricity from the plant over the period of 20 years at a tariff rate of Tk13.525 per kilowatt hour spending Tk 5,687.08 crore.

Under another proposal, the Consortium of Infraco Asia Development Pte Ltd; Greencells GmbH and Global Greengen Ltd, will set up a 10 MW solar (AC) power plant in Sadar Upazila of Noakhali District.

The BPDB will buy electricity over the period of 20 years at a tariff rate of Tk11.017 per kilowatt hour spending Tk357.12 crore.

The committee also approved two separate proposals of Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) to import 30,000 MTs of TSP fertiliser from OCP, SA of Morocco at a cost of Tk132.63 crore and 25,000 MTs of TSP fertiliser from GCT of Tunisia at a cost of Tk109.14 crore.

A proposal of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) received an approval for import of 4 personnel armoured carrier vehicles at Tk23.91 crore.

The committee also approved a number of proposals for import of rice bran oil, soybean oil and lentils by Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) from local suppliers.