Rangpur-4 constituency lawmaker Akhter Hossain has called on the government to reduce liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices to an affordable level, warning that the sudden overnight hike is inflicting serious hardship on ordinary citizens.
Akhter Hossain raised the issue on Tuesday afternoon during the 18th day of the parliamentary session, speaking under Rule 71.
"We are facing a global fuel crisis amid an ongoing war situation, and that has created a fuel crunch in Bangladesh as well. But reports suggest there are also artificial elements to this shortage-- and we do not yet clearly know what steps the government is taking to address those," he said.
The lawmaker noted that while a parliamentary debate on the overall fuel crisis had been agreed upon the previous day, an abrupt hike in LPG prices had meanwhile been imposed, directly hitting households and small-scale producers.
"Those who cook food and run small production operations simply cannot carry on properly under these conditions," he said.
Akhter Hossain said the magnitude of the price increase was excessive and called on the government to bring it down to a bearable level.
He also criticised the speed of the decision, saying the overnight nature of the hike had left people with no time to adjust and had caused serious disruption to daily life.
He urged the government to take effective action on two fronts-- addressing international market volatility and cracking down on domestic hoarding and market manipulation by unscrupulous traders, which he said had been allowed to persist due to lax administrative oversight.
"The government had said it would not raise prices, but it was compelled to do so -- or chose to do so -- and the increase has been far too steep. We believe the price must be brought down to restore some relief to people's lives," he said.
