Staff Reporter :The BERC technical committees did not agree to the proposal for hiking the household gas price submitted by the Titas Gas Distribution and Transmission Company Ltd at a hearing on Tuesday.Chief of the committee AKM Monowar Hossain Akond gave his opinion on behalf of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC). Earlier, Sangker Kumar Das, Director (Finance) of Titas submitted the proposal of 122.22 percent gas price hike for the household users. He proposed Tk 850 for single burner from existing Tk400 and Tk 1000 for double burner from existing Tk450. Consumers using meter-based burners will have to pay Tk 235 instead of Tk146.25 per month, about 60.68 percent increase from the previous note.A hike of 102.94 percent has been proposed for captive powers (privately-owned smaller power plants) to Tk 240 from Tk118 for 1,000 cubic feet of gas.Tk 84 for every 1,000 cubic feet of gas has been proposed for power plants, which was is Tk 79.82 presently.The price of gas will go up to Tk 350 from Tk 268.09 (30.55 percent hike) for commercial users, Tk 200 from Tk 165.91 (20.55pc) for tea gardens, Tk 905.92 from Tk 651.29 (39.10pc) for CNG filling stations and Tk 1,132.67 from Tk 849.50 (33pc) for CNG at consumer level.Fertiliser companies will have to pay Tk 80, which is currently Tk 72.92 (9.71pc), while the tariff for industrial users will reach Tk220 from the existing Tk165.91 (32.60pc).The distribution companies also urged the BERC to make the proposed tariff effective from February 1.BERC Chairman AR Khan, Members Dr Selim Mahmud, Engineer Delwar Hossain, Maksudul Hoque, Rahman Murshed attended the hearing at TCB auditorium on Tuesday.Titas Gas Managing Director (Current duty), Deputy General Manager Rana Akber Haider and other official of the gas distribution company were present at that time.
