What is behind the energy crisis?

BANGLADESH – Following a recent remark of the Finance Minister about fuel price hike, followed by other officials’ “on again off again” price hike babble, unscrupulous traders, especially in the northern districts, resorted to the cartel-type behaviour of cutting supply and raising prices. The apprehensions about looming price hikes coupled with alleged hoarding resulted in panic buying, leading to a supply-demand imbalance and unpredictable price swings. This created a spectre of crisis and despair among the boro rice farmers and a countrywide perception of playing politics with fuel prices.

All recent published reports indicate that the daily average supply of 225 MW in the northern region is only half the 450 MW demand. The storage capacity at Baghabari is 32,174 tonnes against an annual demand for nearly 500,000 tonnes of diesel in the northern zones of the country.

The farmers in Kurigram switched to diesel-run irrigation pumps after hundreds of electric pumps were rendered useless for lack of power supply. Recently, more than 1,700 of those diesel-pumps in the district were facing diesel shortage or blackmarket price spikes. These examples, to the exclusion of numerous others, are cited to make a point that the fuel crisis did not just surface out of the blue, it is the result of lack of leadership and understanding of the country’s affairs.

“When I was the president of the country, I used to read 18 newspapers daily and used to ask the ministers concerned almost immediately to look into the relevant sector that went wrong. There is a serious crisis of fuel and power and the government is dubbing all these are media-projected.” It doesn’t take too much intelligence to decode who these remarks were directed to by former President Ershad.

The Daily Star