No electricity price hike right now: BERC

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has stood aside from its recent move to increase the electricity price, saying that the price will not see any fresh hike right now.

The current price will remain unchanged right now, BERC Chairman Abdul Jalil came up with the announcement at a virtual press conference on Thursday.

Earlier, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) during a public hearing proposed to increase the bulk power tariff by 66 percent.

But, the BERC did not pay heed to the PDB proposal, Jalil said while announcing the decision adding that the 5-member commission of the BERC took the final decision following the public hearing.

He, however, said if any party feels aggrieved, they can apply for reconsideration of the decision within the next 30 days.

Jalil said that some of the private companies purchasing power from the BPDB have not yet submitted their data on transactions.

“There was data ambiguity. That’s why we did not analyse the impact of any rise in bulk tariff on the consumers,” he said, adding that the BERC reached the decision taking the country’s current socio-economic and power supply situation into consideration.

The BPDB has received a subsidy of Tk 17,000 crore from the government so there will be no problem for the BPDB to adjust the electricity cost, he said.

The last public hearing on a proposal of the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board to raise bulk power tariff was held on May 18.

The BERC extended the time for the stakeholders to submit relevant documents for ending the hearing procedures and from the additional time, BERC counted 90 days and set October 13 to announce its decision.

The BERC decision came at a time when the entire country has been experiencing an acute power crisis and the consumers are suffering from load shedding for at least 5 to 6 hours daily in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war.

At the public hearing on May 18, consumer rights groups, including representatives from different business bodies, vehemently opposed any major rise in power tariff right now, as people are already struggling with high inflation caused by high commodity prices.

Bulk electricity price was increased in February 2020 which came into effect in March of that year.

Besides, the government increased gas price by an average of 23 percent last June and fuel oil price by 42 percent to 51 percent since August 6.

And, after a month, the price of fuel oil was reduced by Tk 5 per liter.