Staff Reporter :
The technical committee of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) suggested reducing of wheeling charge to Tk 0.19 from existing Tk 0.32 per MCF of gas.
But, the Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL) contrarily submitted the proposal to increase gas price by Tk 0.15, which means gas wheeling charge will be Tk 0.47 per MCF of gas if the proposal is accepted by the regulatory commission.
Consequently four-day public hearing started on Monday on the proposals for hiking gas price submitted by six state-owned gas distribution companies to BERC.
During the hearing, Chairman of BERC AR Khan strongly criticized the excessive and luxurious expenditure at Gas Transmission Company Limited (GTCL). He expressed his annoyance at the gas charge increasing proposal when the entity is making profit Tk 425 crore in last fiscal and its FDR amount stood Tk 944 crore in the same fiscal.
The regulatory commission has observed that employees of the entities are taking about Tk four lakh at end of the year as profit bonus. In this circumstance, proposal for raising gas price is unethical.
The technical committee of BERC after examining the revenue and expenditure of the entities, recommended for reducing existing wheeling charge by Tk 0.19 instead of raising.
The hearing will take place at the TCB auditorium, a venue located at the same building of the energy watchdog, where a similar four-day hearing was held on the proposals for power tariff hike.
Besides Chairman, BERC’s members Dr Selim Mahmud, Engineer Delowar Hossain, Maksudul Hoque and Rahman Murshed were present.
As per the government directives, the six gas distribution agencies earlier submitted their respective proposals to the BERC to raise the gas price. Although each distribution company separately submitted their respective proposals, they maintained uniformity in their proposals to raise the gas price for different kinds of consumers.
According to the proposals, the companies sought to increase the domestic users’ double burner rate to Tk 1,000 per month from the existing Tk 450, which is a 122.22 percent hike. For the single burner, the rate was proposed to raise to Tk 850 from Tk 400, meaning a hike by 112.50 percent on existing rate. The companies proposed increasing the commercial users’ gas rate, particularly for the metre-based consumers, to Tk 235 per unit from existing Tk 146.25, a raised by 60.68 percent. For industrial users, gas price was proposed to increase by 32.60 percent to Tk 220 from the existing Tk 165.91.
The rate for captive power plant was proposed to raise by 102.94 percent to Tk 240 from Tk 118 per 1,000 cubic feet gas (MCF). For the state-owned power plants, Tk 84 was proposed per MCF gas from Tk 79.82.
The other commercial users’ rate was proposed to increase by 30.55 percent to Tk 350 from Tk 268.09 while tea garden’s gas rate was proposed for Tk 200 from Tk 165, a hike by 91 (20.55%). The gas utility bodies proposed to enhance the rate for CNG gas station by 39.1 percent to Tk 905.92 from Tk 651.29 and at the CNG consumer level Tk 1,132.67 from Tk 849.50, a hike by 33 percent. For fertiliser companies, the gas price was proposed for increasing by 9.71 percent to Tk 80 from Tk 72.92 per MCF.
As per the BERC schedule, it will hold public hearing on GTCL proposal on February 2 while the hearing on proposals of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (Titas T&D) and Pashchimanchal Gas Company Limited will take place on February 3. The energy watchdog will listen to submissions on the proposals of the Bakhrabad Gas Distribution Company Limited and Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Limited on February 4. The hearing on proposals of Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution System Limited and Sundarbans Gas Company Limited will be held on February 5, the concluding day.
Different consumer right groups, including Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh (CAB), social organisations, left-leaning political parties-Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) — and Gano Sanghati Andolon have registered their names to participate in the hearing to oppose any hike in the gas price.
