Farmers and the poorest segment of the society will see no additional amount in their electricity bills, according to the recent announcement of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) on power tariff adjustment, reports BSS.
"Farmers and the poor people will pay their power bills at the same rate as they paid before announcing the new tariff, effective from March 1," a BERC official said, requesting anonymity.
He said media reported around 7.0 per cent increase in power tariff, taking into account the average figure of tariff rise in 10 separate slabs.
BERC, after completing a public hearing, announced the new power tariff on March 13 that structured in 10 users slabs, starting from low users to the industrial consumers.
The first slab, which is for the poor people who use less than 50 kilowatts per month, will pay no additional price. Similarly, agriculture sector has been kept out of the purview of the upward price adjustment to reduce state subsidy.
Similarly, the people will pay Taka 15 per month for consuming up to 75 kilowatts power, Taka 22 for 100 kilowatts, Taka 36 for 150 kilowatts, Taka 50 for 200 kilowatts, Taka 68 for 250 kilowatts, Taka 86 for 300 kilowatts, Taka 111 for 350 kilowatts, Taka 135 for 400 kilowatts and Taka 461 for 1000 kilowatts in addition to their current power bills.
The rate of increases clearly shows that majority of the people including poor to middle income group will pay no more than Taka 135 extra on their current power bills when the rich people will have to bear the highest increased amount.
According to the latest Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), most of the poor people of the county belong to the low users group besides farmers, meaning the new power tariff will not affect major portion of the population.
The HIES survey also shows that only 31 per cent of the poorest people have access to electricity when 74 per cent for the rich people. The demographical statistic suggests only a portion of low income group people will have to pay a tiny amount as additional cost for the electricity they will be consuming until next increase.
