POBNEWS24, Dhaka, May 18, 2022 : A public hearing has been started on the proposal to increase the wholesale price of electricity. The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has proposed to increase the current tariff from Tk 5.18 per unit to Tk 7.56.
BPDB’s proposal considering the current price of gas. In case of power generation, it has been proposed to increase the price of gas by 100 per cent to Tk 9.14 and if it increases by 125 per cent to Tk 9.28.
On the other hand, the technical committee of BERC has given an opinion to make Tk 8.18 without subsidy, the source said. First BPDB will present the rationale of their proposal. The BERC Technical Committee will then present their summary. Then the open hearing will begin.
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) is holding a public hearing at the Biam Auditorium in the capital on Wednesday. Members Maqbool-e-Ilahi Chowdhury, Bazlur Rahman, Mohammad Abu Farooq and Md. Abdul Jalil were present at the hearing. Kamruzzaman.
BERC last fixed the wholesale price of electricity at Rs 5.17 per unit in February 2020. Bangladesh Electricity Development Board (BPDB) is the sole wholesaler of electricity. In addition to their own production, they are importing electricity from abroad and buying electricity from privately owned power plants. It has been selling at wholesale prices to five distribution companies. And they are distributing in the urban areas of Mymensingh, Sylhet and Chittagong divisions.
BPDB’s proposal to increase the wholesale price has said that the cost of generating electricity from oil has gone up due to non-availability of gas supply as per the demand. The average production cost of electricity in 2019-20 financial year was 2.13 rupees, in 2020-21 financial year it has increased to 3.18 rupees. Due to increase in fuel oil price and increase in coal VAT, the production cost per unit in 2022 will be Tk 4.24. If the wholesale price does not increase, BPDB will lose 30 thousand 251 crore 80 lakh taka in 2022.
