Editorial
A major incentive to power plant and industry operators
It must come with safeguards against pollution
In what appears to be breaking a gridlock in terms of local industries tiding over energy crisis on their own, the government has withdrawn import duty on furnace oil. This is a substantial incentive because it meant waiver on 37.5 percent levy on import. Given that paucity of gas has affected power generation that is critically dependent on this hydrocarbon, liberalising import of furnace oil or Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) looked somewhat unavoidable. More so, in a context where no one knows when government would be in a position to supply gas with appropriate pressure to industries to run their boilers and generators.
The government had to meet the demand from large industries to let them have their own power plants based on imported furnace oil. Even though the 'cost of furnace oil-based power will be higher than that of gas-based power', an official of the Youngone company asserted that within six months industries will turn the table on power crisis. True, steady supply of energy is imperative but no less so is the affordability of cost for the consumers.
On the flipside, there is plentiful on our plate to be handled judiciously. The first shortcoming is in the inadequacy of storage facilities. The industries will have to build up silo capacities of their own. Secondly, not all industries may have the equipment to use both diesel and furnace oil. So, some re-equipment may be necessary.
Most important of all, furnace oil-based production is known to cause heavy pollution. This would require of the industries and power plants to have their own treatment facilities. If this is not ensured than the benefits in terms of a turn-around in power crunch may be more than offset by proliferation of pollution. In an era of mounting worldwide concern over the adverse impacts of climate change, any possible air pollution due to lack of effluent treatment in an industry or production process is an anathema, to say the least. All concerned should, therefore, put their heads together, especially the experts, in order that we will have taken adequate guard against environmental pollution when furnace oil is used widely.
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