The technical evaluation committee of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) ruled out Sunday the pleas of two state-run entities for a further raise in retail rates of electricity, citing as reason that both are making operational profits.
On conclusion of public hearings on the issue of public interest, the BERC body rejected the retail-level tariff hike proposals of the Rural Electrification Board (REB) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company Ltd (DESCO).
The regulator had held four days of public hearings over electricity tariff-hike proposals -- amid street protests by stakeholder groups and some political parties.
Rejecting the REB proposal for hiking the average electricity tariffs by 15.60 per cent, the panel pointed out that REB's profit in fiscal year 2014-15 would stand around Tk 3.64 billion as per the current bulk electricity tariff rate, transmission costs and retail-level tariffs.
DESCO is expected to pocket a profit of Tk 2.38 billion based on the existing bulk price, transmission costs and retail electricity rates, the BERC body said in ruling out the average 17.45 per cent hike proposal from the power supplier.
On the concluding day of the public hearings on the proposals for electricity-tariff hike, Energy Adviser of the Consumers' Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Dr M Shamsul Alam urged the Commission to refrain from endorsing any sort of raise -- be it bulk or retail rate.
The association for consumers told the regulator rather to advise the government to opt for power production from least-cost plants for supplying to people at cheaper rates.
Mr Alam suggested a way of cutting down power cost: streamlining activities of all the state-run power entities "in line with their respective jobs to check corruption and misuse of public money".
BERC Chairman AR Khan did not say whether the Commission will raise electricity tariffs or not. He only said the regulator would give its decision after analysing the outcome of the hearings.
"We fix electricity tariff considering the tolerable levels of consumers, not calculating government subsidy," he told the audience.
Stakeholders like business bodies, traders and left-leaning political parties also opposed the retail-level hike proposals from the two entities at the public hearings.
azizjst@yahoo.com
