Rights activists have criticised the interim government for increasing price of kerosene although the price of diesel, octane and petrol price has been reduced in the recent time.
Terming the hike of the kerosene price as discriminatory, they said on Monday that it would hit hard the low income people as the kerosene was mainly used by the poor people.
They also demanded the government to roll-back from the decision to protect vulnerable populations.
Ganatantrik Adhikar Committee member and former Jahangirnagar University economics professor Anu Muhammad said that the kerosene price hike was a discriminatory attitude of the government towards low income people.
Government usually raises any price to earn more but it will not earn much from kerosene as it is not used much compared to diesel, octane and petrol, Anu Muhammad said.
鈥楪overnment should assess the impact of hiked price on the users sensibly before raising price of anything. But there is severe lack in such assessment,鈥� he added.聽
According to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation鈥檚 petroleum oil sales statistics, 70,001 metric tonnes of kerosene was sold in 2023-24 financial year.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh vice-president SM Nazer Hossain said that the price hike of kerosene would badly impact on the life of low income people.
鈥楾he main consumer of kerosene is low income and village people. They mainly use kerosene for cooking their daily food. The price increase will disproportionately hurt low-income households,鈥� said Nazer, mentioning that the uses of kerosene had decreased in the country.
鈥楬iking the kerosene price and reducing the prices of diesel, octane and petrol is discriminatory,鈥� he pointed out.
In many areas, rural communities and the urban low income people also rely on kerosene for lighting, mentioned Nazer, adding that Tk 10 price hike of kerosene was not justified at all.
鈥楩armers, fishermen, street vendors and day labourers are among the hardest hit,鈥� he mentioned.
Kamal Islam, a street vendor at Panthapath in the capital, said that he consumed about 2.5 litters of kerosene every day to make tea for selling.
鈥楶rice of everything is increasing. It is difficult to make profit and survive with the increased price,鈥� stressed Kamal.
It is not realistic for Kamal to increase the price of tea to balance the profit as people will not buy tea if he does so.
Amid the situation he is considering to invest more to buy liquefied petroleum gas to reduce the costing.
On May 31, the energy and mineral resources division issued a notification, effected from June 1, increasing kerosene price by Tk 10 per litre, and reducing diesel price by Tk 2 per litre and octane and petrol prices by Tk 3 per litre.
The new price of kerosene rose up to Tk 114 from Tk 104 per litre while diesel was made Tk 102 per litre, down from Tk 104; price of octane was made Tk 122 per litre, down from Tk 125, and petrol price was made Tk 118 per litre, reduced from Tk 121.
