Minister's slip of tongue fuels artificial fuel crisis in Bangladesh

Words, especially slips of tongue, do leave wreckage in their wake. Last week, Bangladeshi Finance Minister Saifur Rahman said that he was all set to increase the oil price. These words led to an artificial fuel crisis especially in the northern part of the country.

Since Saifur made the remarks, unscrupulous traders began to hoard fuels which make the fuel products short and the prices a bit higher. Diesel and other petroleum products are being sold at much higher prices in the northern part. In some cases the agents charged almost double the government prices.

Shortage of petroleum products was severely harming agricultural production and threatening stoppage of transport movement in the northern region.

According to a local television report, irrigation had come to a halt in the northern region. Farmers were shuttling from filling stations to filling stations for diesel to irrigate their farm lands.

All these troubles were caused by Saifur when he told local newsmen after a meeting a week ago the fuel price will be raised again as the government cannot bear the subsidy on fuel oil.

To avoid further trouble, the government on Jan. 28 denied any shortage of fuel and said it had no plan to increase the fuel price in the near future.

Saifur Rahman blamed media for price rise and rumor. He denied having contemplated a price hike.

Saifur said it was all a concoction of the news media. He even went so far as to label the media report as "misreport" and "media havoc."

When being interviewed by the local media, Energy Adviser Mahmudur Rahman ruled out any plan of increasing fuel prices saying, "my ministry has no plan to increase the price of fuel and does not have any plan to propose to government to do so soon."

The ruling coalition and Ershad-led opposition Jatiya Party lawmakers on Jan. 29 launched a broadside against the government for the ongoing fuel crisis. They asked the government to solve the problem immediately, as otherwise, the country would face an acute shortage of food.

Even Deputy Speaker Akhter Hamid Siddiqui expressed his anxiety regarding the crisis. He has directed the local, finance, home and energy ministers to sit together without any delay and find a way to overcome the crisis.

Fuel price had been raised several times last year which led to the price hike in most of the essentials.

Source: Xinhua