Fuel Hikes, Homegrown Gas & PM's UNGA Trip: Dr. Zahed's Briefing in a Nutshell

In a Nutshell

• Gas exploration push: Titas Well-28 added 12.5 million cubic feet to the grid on September 19; government targets 150 new/reworked wells by 2030 and 225 million cubic feet/day from 19 wells by 2035 to cut costly LNG imports (now near USD 30/unit).
• Fuel price hike (Tk 20/liter on diesel): Justified by BPC losing ~Tk 89/liter (Tk 109 crore daily, ~Tk 40,000 crore annual loss); hike offsets about Tk 10,000 crore of that, with global oil still volatile above USD 100/barrel due to Middle East and Russia-Ukraine conflicts.
• Subsidy strain: Energy subsidies (Tk 48,000 crore budgeted) are already half-spent in 2.5 months, risking Tk 1.25-1.5 lakh crore for the year if unchanged, forcing trade-offs against welfare spending.
• Petrol/octane pricing: Kept relatively higher than diesel as policy targeting wealthier users, since much supply depends on imported crude, not domestic condensate alone; regional price comparisons are meant to deter smuggling, not strict benchmarking.
• Electric rail launch: Tk 3,822.51 crore project approved for Bangladesh's first electric train on the Narayanganj-Dhaka-Joydebpur route, targeting completion by June 2031, with 35-40% savings on fuel and maintenance.
• Closed mills reopened: Nilphamari's Daroani Textile Mills and Magura Textile Mills approved for reopening via public-private partnership on September 16.
• Family Card rollout in October: A nationwide survey (Aug 1-Sept 14) by ~60,761 enumerators is building a poverty database; priority goes to landless, homeless, disabled, transgender, Bede, and small ethnic households, excluding government employees and asset owners, with one card per family.
• Hajj and religious sector support: 2027 Hajj airfare cut by Tk 24,000 to Tk 130,000 (down from Tk 197,797 in 2023); Tk 1,100 crore allocated to honor 256,074 religious leaders/workers across 86,709 institutions, with 13,949 already paid.
• Coastal marine survey completed: Mapped heavy mineral deposits, microplastic pollution, and oil pollution across ~20,000 sq km of coastal sea area, seen as key for future industrial resource planning.
• Public sector pay raise defended: Justified as correcting wage erosion since the last pay scale update in 2015 despite ~10% annual inflation; government says reforms are being implemented in phases due to limited resources.
• Other routine updates: Included continued anti-narcotics and arms recovery operations by the Home Ministry, ongoing children's sports training camps at BKSP, and a shortened UN General Assembly trip by the Chief Adviser for cost efficiency given prevailing domestic priorities.