Traders call two-day nationwide halt to LPG sales, place 7-point demands including higher commission
Photo: Collected
LP Gas Traders Cooperative Society Limited has announced a halt to LPG sales across the country this Thursday and Friday (15 and 16). The organisation’s programme is aimed at realising a seven-point charter of demands, including higher commission and an end to companies changing prices at will.
The organisation’s president, Md Selim Khan, announced the programme at a press conference at the National Press Club in the capital on Monday.
The seven-point demands the traders placed there are:
1. Raise the Tk 50 commission fixed by the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to Tk 150 or seven per cent, considering rising fuel prices, licence fees, cylinder loading and unloading costs, and losses on unused cylinders.
2. If LPG companies adjust prices more than once a month, they must do so only through a BERC announcement.
3. Arrange refilling of cylinders of companies that have failed to supply gas for a long time, either through the government or through the companies concerned.
4. Company invoices must state the actual price of the product.
5. If companies cannot deliver gas to distributors’ warehouses, they must pay a fair transport fare.
6. Traffic police cannot file cases against pickups or trucks carrying cylinders on the sole pretext of not having railings, if their necessary papers are in order.
7. Stop imposing unethical and unreasonable fines on traders through the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection.
The traders alleged that inadequate commission is putting them under extra pressure in running their businesses. On top of this, companies changing prices at will, various transport complications and fines during drives by different departments are causing them losses.
Also present at the press conference were the organisation’s adviser, lawyer Nazrul Islam Mithu, Senior Vice-President Nazir Ahammed Mollah and General Secretary Nasir Uddin.
