Still 7.64pc consumers have to bribe in getting electricity connections: Survey

FE Team | Published: November 30, 2023 23:22:39

Though the government claims to have achieved the target of ensuring one hundred per cent access to electricity, still 7.64 per cent consumers have to provide bribes to officials to get electricity connections, reports UNB.
Such a gloomy picture came from a field level survey conducted by the Micro Industries Development Assistance and Services (Midas) on behalf of the Power Cell, which was presented at an event at Biduyt Bhaban in the city on Thursday.
Some 90.78 per cent customers say 'no' as they did not pay any type of additional money for getting new power connection. Another 7.64 per cent customers say 'yes' and 1.58 per cent customers say 'no response' in the survey.
The survey tiled: "Customer Satisfaction Survey With Recommendation Of Quality Power Supply Including Saidi/Saifi" was unveiled on Thursday.
The survey was conducted on a random basis among 15,245 consumers of six distribution companies of which 90.93 per cent was residential, 89 per cent industrial, 8.0 per cent commercial and 18 per cent for irrigation. Some 52.01 per cent of the customers participating in the survey are prepaid metre users.
Commenting on the survey, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said the government has taken more measures to increase the level of customer satisfaction through making them easier.
He said providing uninterrupted electricity supply will be the main challenge in the days to come.
About uninterrupted power supply, the survey found that 65 per cent of customers said they get uninterrupted power supply, while 34.38 per cent of customers responded negatively and 0.62 per cent did not respond to the question.
On the duration of power outage per day some 58 per cent customers said the experience about half an hour of power cut per day while 20.79 said the power outage duration per day is between '0.6-1.0 hour' while 14.5 said that power outage remains within 1-2 hours and the remaining 3.3 per cent more than 2.0 hours.
Average duration of power per outage 36.12 per cent of customers mentioned '26-30 minutes', while 14.51 per cent of customers mentioned '16-20 minutes' and 12.69 per cent mentioned '11-15 minutes'.
With senior secretary of Power Division Habibur Rahman in the chair, the event was also addressed by Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) Md Mahbubur Rahman, Power Cell director general Mohammad Hossain, Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) managing director Bikash Dewan, and Dhaka Electricity Supply Company (Desco) Managing Director Kawsar Amir Ali.