Filling station owners announce indefinite shutdown in Sylhet

All filling stations in Sylhet district have been declared closed for an indefinite period following various allegations, including the imposition of unjust fines. The announcement was made around 11:30pm on Wednesday (April 1).

Humayun Ahmed, general secretary of the Sylhet divisional committee of the Bangladesh Petroleum Dealers, Distributors Agents and Petroleum Owners Association, confirmed the matter.

He said filling station owners decided to suspend fuel sales in protest against the deployment of tag officers at stations, continuous monitoring of accounts by different agencies, the posting of police personnel at stations, and the imposition of fines on six outlets.

According to the decision, owners said it is not possible to operate CNG, LPG, and other fuel stations across the Sylhet division under the current conditions. He added that they would have no objection if government representatives chose to run the pumps.

Nurul Altaf, a station owner who was fined, said one of his two stations was penalised Tk10,000 by a tag officer, a RAB magistrate, and police for not maintaining proper records. The other station was fined over allegations that fuel had been transferred from one outlet to another.

Additionally, fines were imposed on suspicion that fuel consignments from the Meghna depot had been sold outside authorised channels. Three owners had been waiting since the evening for a resolution, but the issue remained unresolved, prompting them to take this strict decision.