Home ›› 14 Oct 2022 ›› Front
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has rejected Bangladesh Power Development Board’s (BPDB) proposal to raise the bulk power tariff.
“The current tariff will remain unchanged for now,” BERC Chairman Md Abdul Jalil said during a virtual press briefing on Thursday.
He, however, said that if any party feels aggrieved, they can apply for reconsideration of the decision within 30 days.
Jalil noted that some of the private companies that buy power from BPDB have not submitted their data on transactions. “That’s why we could not conduct a full analysis of the impacts of a tariff hike on the wholesale level. We found it illogical to raise the tariff based on incomplete data.”
BERC also took the current socio-economic and power supply situation into consideration while making the decision, he said.
The last BERC decision, taken in February 2020, will remain in place, the current tariff will continue and no further tariff will be introduced until further notice, he added.
Jalil also said that BPDB has received a subsidy of Tk 17,000 crore from the government. “So, it shouldn’t be a problem for BPDB to adjust its cost.”
But a BPDB official, who attended the press briefing, claimed BPDB got Tk 12,500 as a subsidy. Jalil rejected his claim and said, “We have documents from the Finance Division. If you want to see, I will show you.”
The last public hearing on a BPDB proposal to raise bulk power tariff was held on May 18. BERC had extended the time for stakeholders to submit relevant documents before ending the hearing procedure. Afterwards, BERC decided to announce its decision on October 13.
The energy regulator’s decision to reject the proposal has come at a time when the country is experiencing a lingering power crisis and consumers are suffering five to six hours of load-shedding every day.
BPDB has been incurring massive losses since it buys electricity from private power plants at a higher rate and sells it to consumers at a lower rate. The Power Division has been under tremendous pressure from the Finance Ministry to raise power tariffs.
Amid the situation, BPDB proposed to raise bulk power tariffs by 65.57 per cent. Meanwhile, a technical evaluation committee of BERC recommended a 57.83 per cent hike.
At the May 18 hearing, consumer rights groups and representatives of different business bodies vehemently opposed any major rise in power tariff at the moment, as people are already struggling with rising inflation and high commodity prices.
They called the proposal illogical and said BPDB can offset its revenue deficit by addressing irregularities, corruption and unethical practice in buying electricity from inefficient private
