No coal sale since price hike 45 days ago

The authorities of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) could not sell any coal since rise of its price by Tk 3,480 per tonne on August 1.

The state owned company raised the coal price to Tk 15,991 per tonne from previous Tk 12,511, BCMCL sources said.

According to the official data, the mine's coal sale was around 1.68 lakh tonnes between June 14 to July 18 this year.

Of it, 32,000 tonnes of coal was sold on July 17 to some selected people at Tk 12,511 per tonne.

On July 19, the authorities mysteriously stopped coal sale although there was enough stock at its yard and around 364 people applied for the coal, said local traders.

Following a Daily Star report on the matter, the coal mine officials later decided to sell 36,400 tonnes coal more to 364 applicants (each person got 100 tonnes of coal) till July 30, and decided to raise the price to Tk 15,991 with effect from August 1. 

After that, the mine authorities could not sell even a tonne of coal in last one and a half months, said BCMCL sources.

Local coal traders alleged that the authorities raised the coal price on August 1, so that the selected people who had got the 32,000 tonnes of coal can make good profit by selling those.

Coal consumers are taking it from the people who stocked the coal after buying at previous rate instead of going to the BCMCL outlet as the current official rate is too high, said the traders.

Each person, who stocked coal buying it at the previous rate, is making a profit of at least Tk 2,000 per tonne, they said.

“We are not buying coal from the mine as the price is too high,” said Mujibur Rahman, president of Barapukuria Coal Traders' Association.

Bangladesh Power Development Board is the biggest consumer of BCMCL coal for generating power from the coal fired 250WM power plant, set up beside the mine in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur.

The power plant requires 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes of coal daily for generating power.

Brickfield operators in the country comprise the second largest user group of the coal of Barapukuria.

“If the coal price remains too high, the options left for us is to use logs or imported coal for baking bricks when the next brick manufacturing season starts,” said a brick operator in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur.

Coal users have urged the government to take initiative to keep the coal price affordable.

Habib Uddin Ahmed, managing director of BCMCL, said currently there is stock of over three lakh tonnes of coal at the mine yard.

Asked about the coal sale in last 45 days, he said, “The coal sale dropped as it's a dull season.”

The coal users have raised the question why the BCMCL authorities increased the coal price during the dull season.