Consumer woes keep spiraling by the day because of supply shortage of fuel oils from depots and rationing by the filling stations while the government policymakers remain happy with stocks.
Queues at different city filling stations on Saturday got longer for obtaining petrol and octane, increasing sufferings of the motorists despite many efforts from the Energy Division, including the introduction of fuel pass to tackle the extra pressure and mismanagement at pumps and anti-hoarding dives.
Even the statement by the power energy mineral resources state minister Aninda Islam Amit on Friday that Bangladesh now held the largest stock of refined fuel in its history despite disruption in imports in the wake of the war in the Gulf came as puzzling for consumers.
‘What will the government do with the highest ever stock while consumers are struggling day and night to secure petrol and octane,’
said an aggrieved motor cyclist at a filling station with his queue getting already four-hour old.
The motorcyclist, an employee of the Dhaka Water Supply Authority, said that the government should give relief to the consumers from losing so many hours in queues.
The plight of ride-sharers, number of which will be no less than 1,00,000 in the city, is not only limited to losing working hours but also encompasses income losses while the number of unemployed youths is growing because of the lack of private investment in the labour-intensive sector.
The app-based fuel passes introduced by the Energy Division at seven pumps in the city for motorcyclists cannot remove uncertainties among motorists regarding availability of fuel oils with many anxious consumers not bothering to stand in queue at dawn or midnight.
Energy Division joint secretary Monir Hossain Chowdhury said that more than one lakh motorcyclists had already been resistered with the app for monitoring fuel supply to consumers centrally.
Fuel passes have already made a distinction, according to the users.
Showing the QR (quick response) code from the app a motor cyclist obtains fuel oil worth Tk 1,000 while a consumer without QR code receives fuel oils worth Tk 500.
However, both types of consumers have the common similarity as far as the sufferings in the hours-long queues are concerned.
A report by Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha on the day said that the government had expanded the fuel pass to seven more districts.
Motorcycles registered in Dhaka, Dhaka Metro, Chandpur, Chittagong, Chittagong Metro, Barishal, Barishal Metro, Khulna, Khulna Metro, Rajshahi, Rajshahi Metro and Mymensingh districts will now be included in the fuel pass programme.
At the same time, the pilot programme has been extended to 11 more petrol pumps in the capital.
The stations are: Karim and Sons at Shapla Chattar, Eureka Enterprise Filling Station at Mohakhali, Masud Hasan Filling Station at Airport, Sattar and Company at Tejgaon Industrial Area, Kamal Trading Agency at Tejgaon, City Filling Station, Diganta Filling Station at Mirpur Ibrahimpur, S.P. Filling Station Limited at Gabtali, Sheba Green Filling Station at Uttara, Sam Associates at Mirpur-2 and Sumatra Filling Station at Mirpur Kalshi Road.
