The government has decided to provide subsidy facility to the LPG users. The consumers who are paying more compare to natural gas users will be returned excess money directly to their bank account.
In this connection a meeting was hold on November 19 chaired by State Minister for Energy Nasrul Hamid.
An official of Energy Division said the consumers who are using natural gas for cooking purpose now paying only Tk 650 against double burner whereas bottled gas users are paying 1,800 to 2,300 per bottle. In this connection the government has taken the decision to provide cash to the consumers.
Former Energy Advisor M Tamim told that it is injustice. The 7 per cent people are paying nominal price burning the valuable natural gas but others who are using bottled-gas paying at least three times more.
Now Bangladesh is an energy hungry country and state-run oil and gas exploration company, Petrobangla cannot supply the gas as per demand.
A Conservative Estimates of Sector wise Allocation of Gas (In Billion cubic feet)
| Sector | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 20014-15 |
| Power | 278.2 | 300.5 | 324.5 | 50.5 | 378.5 | 415.8 |
| Captive Power | 120.9 | 142.6 | 164.0 | 188.6 | 216.9 | 238.6 |
| Fertilizer | 94.0 | 94.0 | 94.0 | 94.0 | 94.0 | 94.0 |
| Industry | 133.9 | 160.7 | 184.8 | 214.4 | 246.5 | 271.1 |
| Household | 88.9 | 99.5 | 111.4 | 124.8 | 139.8 | 153.8 |
| CNG | 37.2 | 44.7 | 51.4 | 56.5 | 113.0 | 124.3 |
| Others | 30.0 | 30.8 | 31.9 | 32.7 | 33.7 | 37.4 |
| Total | 783.1 | 872.8 | 962.0 | 1061.5 | 1222.4 | 1335.0 |
Nowadays the country needs 100mmcfd per day but the petrobangla provides only 77mmcfd of gas. Only two decade ago it is estimated that the country is floating over natural gas. But now it has become the worst primary energy-hungry country in Asia due to its gradual industrialization.
Mr. Hamid told, “It is fact that the existing reserve of natural gas would be used only next one decade.
Prof. Tamim said, the government can generate 2,000 MW of power using the gas which the house hold consumers are burning for cooking. If a 1,000 MW power plant runs a year it can add Tk 40,000 crore.
According to the government, the country needs three lakh tones of LP gas where as only 1.65 lakhs tones have been provided by both government and private sector.
Energy Ministry official said, now 30 companies are licensed for importing and marketing LP gas , among them 20 companies did not started their activities yet.