Yunus-Tarique Government Spent an Additional $5.49 Billion on Fuel Imports in FY2025-26 Alone

❐ Staff Reporter

Bangladesh has had to pay the biggest bill in history for fuel oil imports. In the outgoing 2025-26 fiscal year (July 2025–June 2026), the country spent $10.63 billion on importing crude oil and refined petroleum products alone—crossing the $10 billion mark for the first time in the country’s history in this sector. This picture has emerged in recent data from Bangladesh Bank.

It is noteworthy that the country has been governed under two successive governments for almost the entire duration of this costly fiscal year. The interim government led by Chief Advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus was in charge until February 17, 2026, and after the elections, the elected government led by BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman took charge from that day. As a result, the Yunus government was responsible for the first half of the fiscal year’s energy import bill, while the Tarique Rahman government was responsible for the last few months—the two governments combined have created this record-breaking bill.

Expenses have more than doubled in a year

According to Bangladesh Bank data, in the previous fiscal year 2024-25, $5.14 billion was spent on importing crude oil and petroleum products. In the space of a year, that expenditure has increased to $10.63 billion—an additional expenditure of $5.49 billion, an increase of about 107 percent in percentage terms.

The cost of importing refined petroleum products alone was about $9.44 billion, which is about 109 percent more than the previous year and the highest ever. According to those concerned, the main reason for this increased cost is not the increase in the volume of imports, but the abnormal increase in the price of fuel oil in the international market. After the conflict between the United States and Israel in the Middle East, the international oil market became unstable, which directly affected Bangladesh’s import costs.

How much fuel was purchased?

According to data from Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), the country imports an average of 6.5 to 6.8 million metric tons of fuel oil annually, of which about 20 percent is crude oil and the remaining 80 percent is refined fuel oil.

Crude oil:

About 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil is imported annually, mainly from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in two grades—Arabian Light Crude Oil (ALC) and Marban Crude. This oil is refined at the Eastern Refinery, the only state-owned refinery in Chittagong, and converted into diesel, petrol-octane, and furnace oil.

Although the Eastern Refinery was closed for crude oil in the last 3-4 months of this fiscal year, this means that 1.2 million tons of crude oil were imported in the last fiscal year.

Refined fuel oil:

Under the Government-to-Government (G2G) agreement, diesel, furnace oil, petrol-octane, jet fuel and base oil are imported from six state-owned companies – OQT of Thailand, ENOC of the United Arab Emirates, PetroChina and Unipec of China, BSP of Indonesia and IOCL of India.

For example, 1.24 million metric tons of refined fuel oil of various grades were imported under a similar agreement during January-June 2026, and a new decision has been made to import 1.525 million metric tons of fuel oil for the period July-December 2026, which will cost about 16,000 crore taka.

In the last fiscal year 2024-25, a total of 6.835 million tons of fuel oil was sold in the country, of which 4.68 million tons came directly through the import of refined fuel oil, and the rest from domestic refineries.

Fears of additional pressure on the economy

Energy sector stakeholders say that the additional expenditure of around $5 billion annually in the energy sector is a bad sign for Bangladesh’s fiscal policy, especially when the country’s foreign investment and foreign debt are at zero.

With energy import dependency currently at over 60 percent, any increase in international prices directly impacts the country’s foreign exchange reserves and exchange rate. Analysts say there is little chance of a sudden relief from this import dependency unless new gas fields are discovered and investment in renewable energy increases.