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Gas for Industry Eased, Halted for Commercial & CNG: Advisory Committee Dissolved
Bangladesh -The government has dissolved the high-powered advisory committee headed by the Prime Minister’s power, energy and mineral resources affairs advisor, therefore, from now on, industry owners will be able to apply directly to the gas distributors for new gas connections.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) on Thursday issued a circular in this regard. However, the government has also suspended new connections to household and commercial consumers along with CNG filling stations, according to the published directives of the MPEMR.
According to the circular, power plants, fertilizer factories and industries will be given priority in terms of gas pipeline clearance while it will be halted for residential, commercial and filling station purposes.
Despite opening a new window for the industries, the government also discouraged gas connections to captive power plants in industries.
The high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister’s energy affairs adviser was constituted around eight years back and industries had to grant approval from this committee to initiate new gas connections. From now on, industry owner won’t have to wait for the approval from the committee, instead, they just have to apply directly to the government gas distributor companies.
Many public and private sector companies are now involved in importing gas from abroad, which enables the government to supply more gas than ever before. Government companies begin to import 50 crore cubic feet of gas while several non-governmental companies also started to import 50 crore cubic feet of gas. Therefore, the government has made it easier for the industries to initiate gas connections.
Earlier, the government suspended new gas connections to industries and commercial consumers on 21 July 2009 and to household consumers on 13 July 2010 amid a scarcity of gas. However, after the formation of the high-powered committee headed by the PM’s energy advisor, a number of 300 industries got gas line permission by special consideration.