National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the government’s decision to hike fuel oil prices, criticising the move as irresponsible and isolated from public.
In a press statement issued on Monday afternoon, the NCP leader alleged that the country’s 180 million people are being forced to pay for the government’s inefficiency and mismanagement.
He noted that BNP government has directly imposed a burden on public instead of seeking effective and creative alternatives to tackle the ongoing crisis, marking the third fuel price increase in just a few months since it came to power.
Addressing the government’s rationale – which cites the Middle East conflict, rising international oil prices, transport costs, and substantial recent losses incurred by the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) – Nahid questioned the handling of previous revenues.
He asked where the thousands of crores of taka in profits made by the BPC during periods of low global oil prices had gone, demanding to know why energy subsidies cannot be maintained during a crisis by cutting spending in other sectors.
Nahid also highlighted that the government levies up to 32 per cent in various taxes and duties on imported fuel oil.
He questioned why the government failed to temporarily reduce these taxes and duties to ease the financial strain on citizens during the current crisis.
The NCP convener noted that while the government aims to save nearly Tk10,000 crore annually by raising fuel prices, it has allocated an additional Tk44,000 crore in the current fiscal year to implement a new pay scale.
He questioned why the implementation of a new pay scale was deemed urgent amidst the Middle East war, global economic instability, and growing domestic economic pressure, asking why it could not be postponed until the Middle East crisis is resolved.
Nahid further asked why state expenditure was not realigned to provide relief to the public.
Criticising an official press release that cited preventing fuel smuggling to India as a key reason for the price hike, the NCP convener added that the failure of law enforcement and border guard forces should not be passed on to the public.
He said deciding to hike fuel prices directly without exploring planned, creative, and people-friendly solutions demonstrates the government’s irresponsibility and isolation from the people, adding that a government with minimal accountability would not have increased fuel prices three times in a matter of months.
“We reject this decision to increase fuel prices imposed on the people,” Nahid added, demanding the immediate withdrawal of the price hike and calling for expenditure realignment to find alternative solutions rather than placing new burdens on citizens.
