The government-set price of a subsidised 12 kg LPG cylinder is Tk 777, yet ordinary people cannot buy one at that price. Dr AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad, assistant secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and a former member of parliament, has asked why, and has called for an impartial investigation into allegations of irregularities and a syndicate in the distribution of government LPG.
He made the demand in a post on his verified Facebook page on Monday morning.
In the post, Azad noted that a 12 kg government LPG cylinder costs Tk 777, while the government-set maximum retail price of a 12 kg cylinder from a private company is Tk 1,837. Despite the wide gap between the two, he alleged, ordinary people are not getting the benefit of the subsidy.
According to his post, 18 to 20 lakh (1.8 to 2 million) government LPG cylinders are released onto the market each year. It is alleged that a large share of them never reach the intended customers and instead end up in private companies’ warehouses through so-called “paper dealers” and a syndicate. They are then refilled and sold for Tk 2,000 to Tk 2,200.
He also cited allegations that at least Tk 150 crore of government money is embezzled this way every year, and called for an impartial investigation into them.
Azad said it was unacceptable that a subsidy paid for with public money should become a source of profit for a dishonest ring instead of reaching ordinary people. The main purpose of a government subsidy is to lower people’s costs, he said, so it must be made sure that the benefit reaches those it is meant for.
He called on the authorities concerned to ensure transparency in the distribution of government LPG, to investigate the allegations of a syndicate and irregularities impartially, and to take effective steps to get subsidised cylinders to ordinary people.
“The subsidy is the people’s right, not the syndicate’s profit,” he wrote in the post.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report