State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain made the disclosure after a meeting of the advisory council on his ministry here yesterday.

The policy is being formulated to bring private investment in the transmission sector.

Several chamber bodies and entrepreneurs have reportedly told the state minister that they would not be able to put in huge amount funds without any official guideline for protecting their private investment.

If private sector can be engaged in the transmission sector, Mosharraf said, the government would get some relief in making huge investment to spread gas network in new areas. "The government will also earn revenue in the form of wheeling charge."

The planned policy is also aimed at ensuring local investment for joint venture projects with state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex).

The Energy Advisory Council at its meeting asked Petrobangla to formulate a draft on its functioning by August 31 to bring necessary amendments to the Petrobangla Act.

"With the launching of the ERC that will look into everything excluding the gas exploration and production, Petrobangla's functions need to be redefined," said State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain.

He said Petrobangla would not be a holding company as thought in the past because in that case it would not be able to deal with its companies in different areas.

The meeting was attended among others by FBCCI President Abdul Awal Mintoo, BGMEA President Annisul Haq, Energy Association Vice President Azam J Chowdhury, Prof M Nurul Islam and Prof M Tamim of BUET. All of them are members advisory council on energy.

Mosharraf for LPG price

rationalisation

At the meeting, the state minister also asked Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation to bring a uniformity in the prices of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas).

His directive came as the private companies engaged in LPG bottling and marketing business in the country are facing an uneven competition with the BPC-controlled LPG Gas Limited.

The company sells a cylinder of gas at Tk 335. But, in practice, the users do not get it at that price and buy gas at the tariff equivalent to private companies' gas. The profit goes only to the dealers.

On the other side, the price of each cylinder of LPG of the private companies for the dealers was Tk 365 to Tk 370 even six months back, which went up to Tk 400-430 due to price hike of crude oil.