Staff Reporter :
Businesses and experts said that the frequent energy tariff hike would increase cost of doing business and industrial competitiveness and will put more financial pressure on consumers.
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was passed in Parliament recently to empower the BERC to make any change in tariff more than one time per financial year.
State minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said that the prices of energy changes in the international market continuously and the government needs to adjust the prices in the local market accordingly.
Businesses and experts, however, said the cost of living will increase further and many factories will close in face of losses if electricity and fuel prices rise again and again every year.
Power prices have been increased 10 times since 2010, citing different reasons and promising better services.
Shams Mahmud, President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DCCII), told The New Nation, “By enacting the law, there have a scope of increasing power tariff more than twice a fiscal year.
But at present situation, the frequent energy tariff hike will increase cost of doing business and industrial competitiveness.”
“Exporters are already facing price pressure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. So, every additional cost will hamper doing business in the country smoothly,” he added.
He urged the commission to refrain from further increasing of power tariff before two years considering the present situation.
“The consumers will lose the discourse to protect their rights and the regulator will have an enormous authority to raise power tariff as many occasions as it wants,” said M Tamim, eminent energy expert.
Citing the law one-sided, he said it was needed to take public opinion and consumer interests in mind before passing the law.
He further said that the government’s power and energy policy has unduly benefited power producers.
The government has paid Tk 59,000 crore in capacity charges to idle private power plants over the past decade, which breaks down to Tk 5,900 crore a year on an average.
Dr Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), told The New Nation, “The law will put more financial burden on the people if electricity and gas prices were raised more than once a year in the present situation.”
“The price of the products will also increase, which will exacerbate the crisis in public life by creating adverse situations in the overall economy,” she said.
