Nasrul Hamid, state minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources announced in a ministry briefing today that all existing gas meters will be converted into pre-paid.
"We are taking a project to remove old gas pipelines from all areas along with Dhaka city and set up new lines and install prepaid meters," he said, adding that the government is taking measures to convert all gas meters into pre-paid in all residential areas in order to discourage the wastage of gas, reports UNB.
"200,000 prepaid meters already got connection and we have applied to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) for further cooperation," he added.
Regarding the adjustment of gas price, he stated that a proposal was submitted to Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (Berc) by the state ministry, awaiting their approval.
Although the government started importing LNG from August 2018, it is priced much higher than our own gas, said the minister, adding that the electricity supply during this Eid was more efficient than last year with 12,800MW of generated power, although the supply was slightly interrupted due to bad weather conditions.
"In the future, the government will install land based LNG and LPG terminals to make the gas price affordable for the consumer," said Nasrul.
Replying to a query, he said: “We are moving according to the target. Our target is 2021 then 2030. We have chalked out our plan for 2041 in power and energy sector.
“The prime minister’s visit to Japan was fruitful. Japan is a very close friend, and ready to fulfill our target by providing financial assistance of more than $2 billion for the Matarbari extension project,” the state minister added.
