BERC\\\'s public hearing on gas tariff hike ends

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) Chairman A R Khan on Thursday emphasised proper distribution of benefit of the country's natural resources.
"We all should enjoy similar benefit in terms of consumption of natural resources," he said.
The BERC chairman was speaking at the concluding day of the four-day public hearing on gas tariff hike at BERC office at Karwan Bazar in the capital.
He assured people of taking decision on tariff hike of natural gas after scrutinising all proposals from the gas marketing and distribution companies, evaluation of BERC's technical evaluation committee, and opinions from experts and stakeholders.
"BERC will protect rights of the consumers," said Mr Khan.
The BERC chairman did not announce any date to deliver its decision, but said it will be done after necessary scrutiny.
The Commission will give the decision independently, without showing bias to any of the stakeholders in energy sector, he added.   
The BERC law dictates announcing a decision on any hearing within 90 days on completion of the hearing process.
The Commission earlier held public hearing on power tariff hike proposals from January 22-25. But no decision was made.
"Many legal and procedural questions were raised during the hearing. So, we have to take into consideration every pros and cons. We'll comprehensively analyse all these things and then make our decision," Mr Khan told reporters.    
On the concluding day of the hearing, the state-owned Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (JGTDCL) and Sundarban Gas Distribution Company Ltd (SGDCL) placed their respective proposals, like other distribution companies, to raise natural gas tariff by up to 122.22 per cent.
Analysing their proposals, BERC technical evaluation committee recommended for a hike by 4.98 per cent on an average for JGTDCL for the fiscal year 2014-15. However, it refrained from making any recommendation on tariff increase or decrease for SGDCL.
SGDCL will reach a breakeven position in the current fiscal year, it revealed.
It will not be wise to take any decision on retail gas price until a wellhead gas price is fixed, said Professor Nurul Islam.
Energy Adviser of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Professor M Shamsul Alam said there is no transparency in spending the money of Gas Development Fund (GDF), which was created earlier by increasing gas price.    
He said the main target of GDF was to help Bapex and other state-owned companies to improve their capacity. But the fund is being spent without any transparency and strategic plan.
Such plans were supposed to be approved by BERC, but Petrobangla did not place any strategic plan to the regulator, he alleged.    
Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) leader Ruhin Hossain Prince said BERC should not go for any increase in the current gas price before ensuring a mechanism to provide its benefit to the consumers, who do not have access to natural gas.
"We'll only accept a proposal to increase gas price once we are sure that the rural people are getting its benefit through alternative ways in their energy spending," he told the hearing.
Gonosonghoti Andolon convenor Zonayed Saki said any hike in gas price will push up all commodity prices.
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