Staff Reporter :
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) will decide today (Wednesday) whether there will be an increase in the gas and electricity prices afresh.
Commission sources have said that Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has already proposed to increase the wholesale price of electricity following the suit of the all the gas distribution companies.
“But the commission meeting will decide tomorrow whether the process of fresh gas and electricity tariff to be started or not,” a BERC official told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
He added: “BERC is reviewing the situation and if it feels that an upward tariff adjustment is necessary, then the proposals of state-owned power and gas distribution companies will be taken into consideration. But if it thinks that there is no need to increase the tariff then the proposals will be sent back. In that case, the price will not increase for the time being.”
Recently, state-owned distributors proposed raising retail gas rates by up to around 100 per cent.
But the gas companies say that their price hike move is to adjust with the inflated importing rates, plus to calibrate the government power subsidy and spending gap.
If the proposal is accepted, consumers will have to pay Tk19-20 per cubic metreof gas, while the current rate is Tk9.80, according to sources at the BERC.
They said the gas distribution companies – Petrobangla and its subsidiaries – submitted the proposals, while the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex) wants to increase its production cost by more than 48 per cent.
Besides, BPDB also submitted a proposal to increase the wholesale rates of electricity as the recent rise in fuel prices has pushed up production costs.
BPDB is buying electricity from privately owned power plants and also importing electricity from India. It has been selling all the electricity to five distribution companies at wholesale rates.
“BPDB is selling electricity at a lower rates than the cost of production and thus it is incurring huge losses. So, a proposal for wholesale price adjustment has been made to recup the losses,” said an official of BPDB.
