Government against new household gas connections: Muhith

MNA Business Desk: Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Finance Minister, remarked that the government has strongly decided against giving any new household natural gas connections and will stick to that decision.

There is no point of spending present gas for cooking. He also stated that the use of natural gas for household tasks is an absolute waste of the valuable resource.

The minister made the statement during a seminar arranged on the occasion of “National Energy Security Day 2016” by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division at Petro Center in Dhaka.

Stating Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as an alternative fuel for household use, the Minister said the government has made the import of cylinder gas easier by reducing its duty in the current budget.

“But some private operators took advantage of it and some of them are doing monopoly with LPG. If this continues, I’ll withdraw total duties on LPG in the next budget,” he told the seminar.

“About 80% of power is generated using gas.  Whenever gas is found, it was supplied for domestic consumption. Now, we see the remaining reserve is very inadequate. This is a very costly resource. Cooking with this resource is a great waste,” said Muhith.

He said some people are still demanding gas connections for domestic consumption.  “We’ll have to make them understand that this is not for cooking as there are many alternative fuels for it.”

As per the plan, LNG import will be increased, while gas exploration in both offshore and onshore will be intensified, and the use of natural gas for domestic use will be stopped.