National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener and Opposition Chief Whip Nahid Islam today blamed the ongoing power and fuel crisis on the government’s lack of planning and delays in approving fuel purchases, alleging the situation was being used to benefit favoured business groups.
“The dollars are available, but there is no timely purchasing schedule,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Nahid said BNP had promised to end corruption and ensure fairness in the power and energy sector but was moving in the opposite direction six months after taking office.
Citing media reports, he said Bashundhara Oil and Gas sought permission to import, store and market refined fuel. Soon afterwards, the Energy and Mineral Resources Division gave Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) only four days -- from August 6 to 10 -- to prepare a draft policy on private-sector fuel imports and marketing. He alleged the BPC chairman was removed after opposing the move.
Nahid also criticised a July 28 decision to shorten the bidding period for fuel imports for September-December from 42 days to 10, arguing that such a brief window could discourage major international suppliers, reduce competition and drive up prices.
Rejecting the government’s claim that a shortage of funds was disrupting supplies, he cited central bank figures showing gross foreign exchange reserves of around $36.9 billion and reserves of around $32 billion under the BPM6 method. He alleged the crisis began because the government failed to continue fuel purchases according to actual demand and did not approve the BPC’s import schedule on time.
Nahid said load shedding reached 3,757MW at 1:00am on August 10, surpassing 3,671MW the previous day and 3,512MW on August 3. He added that 41 power plants were shut and rural areas were facing outages lasting 10 to 14 hours daily.
He rejected the government’s attempt to blame the crisis solely on the war in the Middle East, saying Power Grid Bangladesh data showed the supply situation was already poor before the conflict began.
Nahid also sought an independent investigation into the July 21 fire at Excelerate Energy’s floating LNG terminal in Maheshkhali, which halted the supply of 510 million cubic feet of gas a day.
Among his proposals, Nahid called for suspending the privatisation process, restoring the tender period to 42 days, approving the BPC’s September-December purchase schedule and publishing a procurement calendar for the next four to six quarters.
He also demanded an audit of capacity charges, repeal of the indemnity law, mandatory smart metering, more LNG terminals, greater investment in Bapex, and steps to generate 10,000MW of solar power by 2030.
“The government’s first responsibility is to the people, not any business group,” he wrote, saying that the NCP would resist policies favouring oligarchs.
