Prepaid gas meters in phases for domestic consumers in city soon

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (TGTDCL) has moved to introduce usage of prepaid meters by all household consumers in phases to save a significant quantity of gas and check misuse, a top official of the company said. State-run TGTDCL, the country's largest gas distribution company, will provide 300,000 prepaid meters to household consumers in different areas of the city at a total cost of Tk 3.36 billion by 2015 in the first phase, he said. It will arrange fund for the purpose from its own coffer. The company has a target to introduce prepaid meters for all the existing 1.5 million household consumers of the capital in phases, said the TGTDCL official. "It will be able to save around 15.42 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of gas every year, which is 20 per cent of the total consumption, with the introduction of prepaid meters for household consumers," he added. Currently the household clients consume around 77.11 Bcf of gas annually in the capital. Cost of per unit prepaid meter will be Tk 6,000-6,500 which would be collected from the consumers through prepaid cards in phases. "We have sent a proposal of the project to the energy ministry for approval. We are hopeful of getting nod soon," Engineer Md Atiquzzaman of the company told the FE. He was hopeful of starting implementation of the prepaid meter project from the beginning of next fiscal year (2012-13). "Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) will be the local consultant of the project. A United Kingdom (UK)-based consultant has also been appointed to prepare bid document of the prepaid meter project," he added. Mr Zaman also said: "Though revenue earning of the company might decline, the country would be benefited in the long run as large amounts of gas would be saved through installation of meters." Presently TGTDCL is earning around Tk 6.6 billion yearly against its 1.5 million connections to household users in the Dhaka city. TGTDCL in the first phase has provided 5,000 such meters in Dhanmondi area of the city of trial basis and experienced that average use of gas of each household customer comes to Tk 300-Tk 350 monthly. TGTDCL is now charging Tk 400 and Tk 450 as fixed bill from its customers against each single burner and double-burner respectively which would cause loss of around Tk 100 to Tk 150 to the company against each connection. Mr Atiquzzaman also added: "We have submitted another project proposal to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for funding installation of another 300,000 prepaid meters, which is under process of negotiation." The government in 2010 has issued a circular to all the gas distribution companies of the country to bring all of its household users under use of prepaid meter in a bid to save a considerable amount of gas from misuse. "Due to the fixed-billing system in household use, it has long been observed that people use gas for drying cloths and some other things," another high official of the company said preferring anonymity. "Some time it has also been observed that to avoid using a single stick of safety match, users do not even bother to put off burners rather keep burning of gases round the clock as a result of which large amounts of gas burn for no reason," he added. "The new initiative would reduce such kind of misuse of gas which would help the government to provide further connections to more industrial or household customers," he said further.