The National Citizen Party (NCP) has accused the BNP government of abandoning its election pledges and engineering an energy crisis to justify handing greater control of fuel imports and electricity distribution to powerful private business groups.
In a sharply worded statement, the NCP said the government was moving toward an “oligarchs’ government” despite campaigning on a promise of “not plunder, but production; not inequality, but fairness.”
The party pointed to the government’s move to develop a policy allowing private companies to import, store, transport, distribute and market refined petroleum.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division gave Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation just four days to prepare the draft policy after Bashundhara Oil and Gas sought permission to import and market refined fuel through its own arrangements.
The NCP also questioned the removal of the BPC chairman after he reportedly opposed the move.
The party raised concerns over a decision to cut the bidding period for international petroleum import tenders for September-December from 42 days to 10 days, warning that it could restrict competition, increase prices and open the door to syndicates.
The NCP rejected the government's argument that insufficient foreign currency was hampering fuel supplies, citing Bangladesh Bank figures showing gross reserves of around $36.9 billion and reserves under the BPM6 calculation at roughly $32 billion. It said remittances reached $915 million during Aug. 1-8, up 42.9% from a year earlier.
Instead, the party blamed failures to approve BPC's procurement schedules on time and questioned whether pressure to accommodate preferred suppliers had disrupted imports.
The NCP also challenged the government's attempt to attribute the worsening power crisis primarily to the Middle East war, arguing that serious load-shedding had begun before the conflict.
Load-shedding reached 3,757 megawatts at 1 a.m. on Aug. 10, after hitting 3,671 MW on Aug. 9 and 3,512 MW on Aug. 3, according to figures cited by the party. It said 41 power plants were shut and electricity imports from India had nearly halved, leaving some rural areas without power for 10 to 14 hours a day.
The NCP also raised questions over the July 21 fire at Excelerate Energy's floating LNG terminal in Maheshkhali, which disrupted around 510 million cubic feet of daily gas supply. Partial supplies resumed 15 days later, it said, demanding publication of an independent technical investigation.
The party warned against replacing BPC's state monopoly with a private monopoly and called instead for competitive tenders, multiple market participants, transparent accountability and continued state control over strategically important parts of the energy sector.
It demanded that the government suspend its accelerated privatization initiative, restore the international tender period to 42 days, approve BPC's September-December procurement schedule and publish a longer-term fuel procurement calendar.
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