The technical evaluation committee of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has recommended against raising power tariffs at the consumer-level by the Rural Electrification Board (REB) and the Dhaka Electric Supply Company (Desco).
The recommendations came at a public hearing yesterday on REB and Desco proposals to hike power prices by 25.89% and 17.45%, respectively.
The technical committee said there was no need to increase retail power prices for REB and Desco consumers since they are both profitable companies.
REB Chairman Brig Gen Moin Uddin placed the proposal before the BERC.
He said there were some 17 million electricity users in the rural areas of the country, accounting for 70% of the country’s total users. Of those, 86%, or 9.2 million, are residential consumers.
Desco Managing Director Brig Gen (retd) Md Shahid Sarwar presented the proposal before the commission.
BERC Chairman AR Khan, Members Salim Mahmud, Delwar Hossain and Md Maksudul Haque and other stakeholders attended the public hearing at the commission’s office in the capital.
Meanwhile, Shamsul Alam, energy adviser of the Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB),said the two distribution agencies did not need to increase retail prices of electricity as the state-run companies were making profits.
Mostaque Ahmed, chief of the evaluation committee and also a director of the BERC, said if the bulk power tariff was increased by 5.16%, the operating revenue in 2014-15 fiscal year for the REB would be Tk111.4 billion for 20.4 billion units.
REB’s current operating revenue for the fiscal year will be Tk111.1 billion which is Tk268.52 million less than the recommended revenue. So, REB needs to increase retail prices by 0.27%.
The committee said if the proposed bulk power tariff was increased by 5.16%, the recommended operating revenue in 2014-15 fiscal year for Desco would be Tk30.4 billion for 4.4 billion units.
Desco’s current operating revenue in FY2014-15 will be Tk31.1 billion which is Tk680.94 million higher than the recommended revenue. So, Desco does not need to increase the price.
On January 20, the technical evaluation committee of the BERC recommended raising bulk power tariffs by 5.16% per unit (per kilowatt-hour).