The severe fuel oil crisis that began on March 6 in the country on the back of rationing, panic buying and hoarding has eased a bit over the past one week, but it will return unless the management of the affairs is not streamlined, said experts at a webinar on Saturday.
Blaming bureaucratic approach for the supply crunch against the import disruption because of the war in the Middle East, they said that multiple steps had been taken to contain hours-long queues at filling stations and public suffering without much success because many of these responses were driven by a largely one-dimensional focus on managing demand side, not addressing the supply side.
When the supply increased, situation improved, noted the experts as they were speaking at the webinar arranged by the Power and Participation Research Centre.
Moderated by PPRC executive chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman, the webinar was participated by A Sattar Mandal, former vice-chancellor of Bangladesh Agriculture University, Mohammad Nazmul Haque, former president of the Bangladesh Petrol Pump Owner’s Association, Anwar-ul Alam Parvez, chairman of the Bangladesh Chamber of Industries, AKM Zafar Ullah Khan, chairman of Padma Oil Company Limited and Syed Mahmudul Huq, chairman of Trade Services International.
Anwar-ul Alam Parvez questioned effectiveness of the closure of shopping malls at 7.00pm to save power, saying that 30-40 per cent of sales dropped affecting small and medium entrepreneurs.
The government has also increased prices of octane, petrol, diesel and kerosene to address the demand side, but, the speakers said, domino effect of the price hikes have already pushed up the production costs and worried the newly elected government, which inherited a fragile economy.
Sattar Mandal said that the diesel price hike would incur extra Tk 3,000 crore to Tk 4,000 crore for running diesel-fired irrigation pumps while Syed Mahmudul Haque said that an increase of $5 a barrel on the international market raised Bangladesh’s costs by about $400–500 million in the sector.
In his concluding remarks, Hossain Zillur Rahman said that over-reliance on bureaucratic structures could often limit timely and effective responses.
He pointed to the need for a more integrated and diversified approach to the energy policy.
He called for a broad-based initiative to transform the 2026 energy crisis as a catalyst to achieve energy security by addressing deeper structural vulnerabilities through integrated policy responses, stronger institutional coordination, and a long-term commitment to energy diversification and efficiency to serve economic acceleration.
