The New Nation - Internet Edition

Shamim Jahangir

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) is likely to increase gas-price by 10 to 15 per cent both for domestic and bulk customers, today (Sunday), sources said.

The price hike of gas will be effective between January and March, of next year sources added. The concerned authority has taken decision as the caretaker government requested the BERC not to increase gas price during its tenure.

BERC Chairman Gholam Rahman yesterday told the New Nation that we have informed our decision to the stakeholders about the hike of price today afternoon.

"The gas price may be raised between 10 to 15 per cent in different level," said the BERC chairman.

The commission will offer the decision permitting Petrobangla to increase gas price by 10 to 15 per cent following its proposal to increase the price by 65 per cent on an average at consumer level, an official of BERC said.

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 percent raise over the existing rates for domestic gas users.

The metered domestic consumers will have to pay Tk 208 instead of Tk 130 with a price increase of 26.81 percent. Similarly, Petrobangla proposed to increase gas price for commercial users by 26.08 percent, meaning that per

unit (1000 cubic feet) 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 percent rise. The same rate will apply to tea-estates.

For captive power plants, the new rate is proposed Tk 182.25 per unit, up from the present rate of Tk 105.59, by a 72.60 percent rise. 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 percent rise.

For fertiliser industries, the rate is Tk 93.73 instead of Tk 63.41 per unit by a rise of 47.81 percent. The government is not interested in increasing price towards the end of its tenure to avoid controversy, sources further said.

"Apart from this caretaker government, we will also need to consider the situation of the next elected government. The next government may not want to increase gas price immediately after assumption of office," the official said.

Earlier, the BERC in an initial hearing accepted the proposal placed by the Petrobangla, then, it arranged a public opinion about the rise of gas price with different stakeholders alongside the Petrobangla proposal.

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 (IOCs) 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," Petrobangla Chairman Jalal Ahmed said earlier.

During the hearing, the consumers protested against the Petrobangla proposal. After going through Petrobangla's financial statements, the commission, however, said earlier as per Petrobangla's calculation there was no need for such massive increases and an average increase of 12 to 15 per cent should be enough for Petrobangla to fulfill its revenue requirement.