The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Price hike of gas, ranging up to 65 per cent, is in the offing as the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) will be holding public hearings from today on proposed gas-price rises, informed sources said.

The BERC already has accepted the proposal of the state-owned Petrobangla in an initial hearing, subject to eliciting public opinion about the raise.

Sources in the BERC said this time the hearing may continue for two days as the Commission would hear the views of different stakeholders alongside the Petrobangla proposal.

On conclusion of the hearings, the Commission will announce its final decision by October 30.

In the proposal, the Petrobangla suggested a variable price hike for its different categories of consumers. The average hike will come to 65 per cent.

As per the proposal, Petrobangla, for domestic consumers, suggested raising the gas price to Tk 600 from the existing rate of Tk 400 for a double-burner oven while Tk 550 for single-burner oven against the present rate of Tk 350.

The proposal is for a 50 per cent raise over the existing rates for domestic gas users.

If raised, responding the proposal, the metered domestic consumers will have to pay Tk 208 instead of Tk 130 with a price increase of 26.81 per cent. Similarly, Petrobangla proposed to increase gas price for commercial users by 26.08 per cent, meaning that per-unit (1000 cubic feet or 1 mcf) price will go up to Tk 291.59 from the current price of Tk 233.12.

For the industrial consumers, the proposed per-unit price is Tk 182.25, up from the present rate of Tk 148.13, with a 23.03 per cent raise.

The same rate will apply to tea-estates.

For captive power plants, the new rate is proposed to be Tk 182.25 per unit, up from the present rate of Tk 105.59, by a 72.60 per cent raise.

The Petrobangla proposed Tk 93.73 per-unit as gas price for the Power

Development Board (PDB), independent power producer (IPP) and small power plant (SPP) instead of Tk 73.91, with a 26.81 per cent raise.

For fertiliser industries, the new rate is envisaged to be Tk 93.73 instead of Tk 63.41 per unit by a raise of 47.81 percent.

Presenting the price-hike proposal Petrobangla Chairman Jalal Ahmed said his organisation's cumulative deficit on account of undercut gas supply to International Oil Companies is about Tk 2000 crore.

"If we don't raise gas prices, Petrobangla will have to go bankrupt shortly, which will ultimately make it unable to go for further exploration," he said to justify the merit of the government move in the interim period.