Govt to buy 54 lakh tonnes of fuel oil for 2023

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the proposal to import 54.50 lakh tonnes of fuel oil from the international market for 2023.

In the weekly meeting on Wednesday, the committee recommended approving the proposal of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), said Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Rahat Anwar.

The BPC made two separate proposals to import 16 lakh tonnes of crude fuel oil and 38.60 lakh tonnes of refined fuel oil in the meeting.

After the meeting, Additional Secretary Rahat Anwar told reporters that the crude oil will be procured directly from Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi company Ednoc, while the refined oil will be collected from various sources through government-to-government purchases.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal chaired the virtual meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs and Public Procurement.

In the public procurement committee meeting, purchase of 1.10 crore litres of soybean oil at a cost of Tk189 crore was approved. 

The soybean oil will be purchased through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) under the Ministry of Commerce from Meghna Edible Oil Refinery Limited, according to Rahat Anwar. 

He said that the proposal to purchase 55 lakh tonnes of super palm oil through TCB was also approved in the meeting. The oil will be purchased from Super Well Refinery Limited at Tk87.97 crore.

In the meeting, the proposal to buy 8,000 tonnes of lentils at Tk70.58 crore through TCB was also approved. 

The additional secretary said that the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) under the Ministry of Agriculture has approved the proposal to import 50,000 tonnes of MOP fertiliser from the Canadian Commercial Corporation at around Tk437 crore.