The Energy Division has forwarded a proposal of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation to the government's Hard-Term Loan Committee to allow it to borrow $250 million from three multinational banks for import of fuel.
Officials said that the Energy Division on Monday sent the committee the BPC's proposal to get permission to take loans from the HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citi Bank at an interest rate of 5.3 per cent.
If the Hard-Term Loan Committee, headed by finance minister AMA Muhith, approves the proposal, the banks will arrange a road show to collect the fund which will be loaned to BPC for six months, said a high official.
'The interest rate of the banks will be at par with the rate of the Islamic Development Bank, which is the major supplier of funds to the BPC,' he said.
BPC officials said that they were finding it difficult to arrange funds to import fuel oils, including diesel and kerosene, because of increased bills.
The annual oil bill will be increased to around $4-$5 billion in the next fiscal year because of the installation of a large number of oil-based power plants.
'The IDB will provide us around $700 million in the July-December period. We will also get the proceeds from selling fuel oils. But as their prices at the consumer end are lower than the import cost, BPC will need additional fund for continuing the import of fuel oils,' said the official.
The import of fuel oils will rise to around 6 million tonnes a year from around 4 million because of the oil-based power plants.
The BPC took loans worth $250 from the Standard Chartered Bank in FY2006-07 when the country's oil import bill was around $2 billion.
Source : New Age
