UNB
A bill titled ‘Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation Bill, 2016’ was passed in Parliament on Sunday, aiming to scrap the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation Ordinance, 1976 promulgated during the military regime.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid moved the Bill in the House, which was passed by voice vote.
The Ordinance, promulgated during Ziaur Rahman’s regime, lost its effectiveness following the 15th amendment to the Constitution.
As per the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, all the ordinances promulgated during military regime from August 15, 1975 to April 9, 1979 were revoked.
Though the previous ordinance was in English version, the fresh bill has been placed and passed in Bengali version in the House.
As per the bill, the BPC will have a board of directors led by a chairman appointed by the government.
The board will consist of a chairman, one joint secretary each from the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, the Power Division and the Finance Division as well as maximum five directors appointed by the government.
The chairman and the directors of the board will be appointed for a five-year term and the appointment can be renewed later.
The chairman will be the chief executive of the corporation and its head office is in the port city of Chittagong.
The authorised capital of the Corporation will be Tk 1,000 crore and the government would pay the capital as per BPC requirement.
But, in the 1976 ordinance, the amount of authorised capital was only Tk one crore.
In the bill, Parliament accepted four amendment proposals placed by three Jatiya Party MPs –-Fakhrul Imam, Rowshan Ara Mannan and Salim Uddin.