http://www.newagebd.com/2009/jan/23/front.html#11
Inter-ministerial meeting Feb 2 on gas dev fund creation
Staff Correspondent
The energy division has convened an inter-ministerial meeting for February 2 to create a ‘gas development fund’ to be dedicated to gas exploration and production as per the Petrobangla request.
The fund formation has been set as a condition by the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission for allowing the state-owned oil and gas corporation to increase its gas price by 10-15 per cent, officials said.
‘We have received the Petrobangla proposal to create the gas development fund. We will sit with the relevant ministries like finance and the National Board of Revenue for their recommendations before a decision is taken on it,’ the energy secretary, Mohammad Mohsin told New Age on Thursday.
Officials of the division said that the meeting was scheduled for February 2.
The commission on November 30 set a condition which says that Petrobangla will be allowed to increase gas price by 10-15 per cent if it creates a fund with the money which will come from the increased price of gas, to be used for gas exploration and production.
It also said that Petrobangla should ensure that the fund was tax-free.
Petrobangla applied to the commission in July 2008 for allowing it to increase gas prices by 65 per cent for the consumers in different categories including household, power and fertiliser plants and industries.
‘If Petrobangla is allowed to increase the gas price by 10 per cent, the increased price will go to the fund and no gas distribution company will be allowed to take any portion of it. Besides, Petrobangla will have to ensure that the government takes no taxes from the fund,’ announced the commission chairman, Ghulam Rahman, on November 30.
The commission also announced that Petrobangla would need to submit a list of specified programmes where it wanted to spend the money of the fund.
Petrobangla officials said they would need to take the NBR permission to make the fund tax-free as the NBR took away 55 per cent of gas sales as taxes. ‘Any price increase usually means that the government will take away 55 per cent of the increased portion as taxes.
Energy experts hailed the decision of creating such a fund as the gas producing companies, especially the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production, often face fund shortages while exploring gas or developing gas fields as the government is reluctant to provide sufficient funds.
Business people, however, have been requesting not to increase gas prices as such hike would push up their production costs.
