A public hearing on a proposal for raising the electricity tariff at a bulk level will be held on Wednesday.
Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) will hold the hearing at Biam Auditorium in Dhaka from 10:30am to 5pm in response to an appeal of the state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).
The BPDB moved the proposal urging the energy regulator to set the bulk power tariff at Tk8.58 instead of the existing Tk5.17 per kilowatt-hour (each unit).
The BPDB in its proposal to the energy regulator claims that it will incur a loss of Tk30,251 crore in the current fiscal year if the bulk tariff is not raised.
It attributed the increasing fuel cost and other soaring expenses to financial losses saying that the production cost of electricity has gone up to Tk4.24 per unit in 2022 from Tk2.13 in the fiscal year 2019-20.
Power industry insiders said it is obvious that if the bulk electricity tariff is raised it will ultimately push up the tariff at the retail level.
Any rise in bulk tariff will be applicable to the power distribution companies as they are the bulk consumers.
They buy electricity from BPDB in bulk and then sell it to the public at retail rates. So the public hearing on retail tariff will come consequently, said an industry insider.
All state-owned power distribution companies have already submitted their respective proposals to the BERC to raise the power rates at the retail level.
But this time the BERC is going to hold a public hearing on the bulk tariff proposal keeping pending the request for raising the retail price.