State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told bdnews24.com on Monday evening an announcement might come next week.



On Mar 31, the price of furnace oil was brought down from Tk 60 a litre to Tk 42 amidst a growing demand for cuts in oil prices.



Asked whether prices of other types of fuel oil will be cut, Hamid said, “Yes. We are going to reduce the prices of all of them in two or three phases.”



“We want to see first how the market reacts if the prices are cut by either Tk 10 or Tk 5,” he said, explaining the method.



Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has given directives to cut the prices, the state minister said, adding, “I will most likely give the order in writing (Tuesday).”



With a global fall in oil prices for well over a year, businesses have been demanding cuts in prices of all fuel oils, but the government had been unresponsive until now.



Prime Minister Hasina had recently rejected Finance Minister AMA Muhith and Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s proposal to lower the prices following demands by top business bodies including the FBCCI and BGMEA.



The government then kept oil prices unchanged to help state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation to offset some of its mounting losses.



The last time fuel oil prices were raised was in 2013 due to a global hike in oil prices.



As per the prices fixed then, octane is now being sold at Tk 99 per litre, petrol at Tk 96, and kerosene and diesel at Tk 68 a litre.



The price of furnace oil had been fixed at Tk 60 a litre, but that was cut on Mar 31.



Bangladesh’s annual need for fuel oil rose to over 5 million tonnes a few years ago due to oil-run power plants and an increase in the number of vehicles.