The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC)has turned down the proposal, put forward by the Power Development Board to increase the price of bulk power,due to a lack of proper information and transparencyin electricity purchase.
At a virtual press conference on Thursday,BERC announced its decision to keep the price of bulk electricity unchanged for now.
BERC Chairman Md Abdul Jalil said that the bulk electricity tariff remains unchanged as Bangladesh Power Development Board has failed to provide necessary information in favour of the proposal for the tariff adjustment.
"We have found a 'paralysis of analysis' in the BPDB's power tariff adjustment proposal. They couldn’t provide us with a clear wayout of avoiding the inevitable effect of the bulk tariff adjustment on distribution and consumer levels," he said.
Abdul Jalilsaid that the government is giving Tk17 thousand crore as subsidy. With this, BPDB is able to adjust the deficit. The commission has taken a decision, considering these issues.
Earlier, BPDB had proposed a 65.57 percent hike in bulk electricity tariffs on the pretext of BERC's raising of natural gas tariffs and hike in oil prices on the international market. In this regard, a public hearing on the adjustment for bulk tariff was held on May 18.
At the public hearing, a technical committee of BERC had recommended increasing the bulk power tariff by 57.83 percent without government subsidy. The committee recommended increasing the bulk power price by Tk 2.99 per unit against BPDB's proposal for raising it by Tk 3.39 per unit.
However, the proposal and recommendation to hike up the price was strongly opposed by Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) and others at the public hearing.
The BERC Act has a provision to issue an order within 90 working days after the public hearing.BERC announced their decision on the day of the expiry of time limit. Earlier, CAB had written a letter to BERC on July 13, opposing the hike in electricity prices. It is said that load shedding is being done at consumer level by reducing fuel consumption. Electricity generation is expected to increase by 7 percent compared to the previous year, but now the generation is lower than before. It is saving money on import of fuel oil and LNG. So, the proposal to increase the price is no longer logical.
In June, BERC raised the gas prices by 22.78 percent, on an average, for all users, despite repeated opposition from the consumer rights groups. After a hike in gas prices, the cost of living has also increased. During the crisis period, fuel oil prices have increased since August 6 amid the ongoing load shedding. Diesel price has been hiked by 42.5 per cent and petrol-octane by 51 per cent. After that, in the face of widespread criticism, the price of fuel oil was reduced by Tk5 per litre after a month.
The last bulk electricity price was announced on 27 February 2020, when the energy regulator hiked the price by 8% to Tk5.17kWt from Tk4.77kWt. Then the board used to buy power at Tk3.46 kWt-Tk43.42kWt.
Currently, BPDB is selling wholesale power at Tk 5.15 per unit, and the government is also providing subsidy of Tk 3.39 per unit.
In the last 12 years, electricity prices have gone up by 118% at bulk level and 90% at consumer level.
