Using gas to cook food is waste of energy: Muhith

Finance Minister AMA Muhith today said consumption of natural gas by households would be completely discontinued as the energy is too precious to be used in cooking food or boiling water.

“Our gas reserves are very insignificant. So, using gas to cook food is a waste of energy,” he told during a seminar at Petrobangla in Dhaka.

The government has stopped giving permission to new gas connections, particularly to households, for the last six years amid dwindling of gas reserves. But demands for getting new gas connections are growing in various parts of the country.

“But the movement would not give any result,” said Muhith. “Our first priority would be cancelling the usage of gas for household purposes. We have to convince the people that it is a waste.”

The minister spoke at the seminar organised on the occasion of the National Energy Security Day.

The government declared August 9 as the National Energy Security Day in 2010. On this day in 1975 Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman bought five gas fields from Shell Oil Company at only £4.4 million.