Three-day public hearing on fresh power tariff hike from tomorrow

A three-day public hearing on the fresh electricity tariff hike for all categories of consumers starts from tomorrow (Tuesday) before  announcing the range of increase.
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has arranged the public hearing for three consecutive days on March 4, 5 and 6 on the tariff hike proposals as submitted by the state-owned electricity distribution companies.
All electricity distribution companies have already submitted fresh proposals to the energy regulator seeking hike of electricity tariff within the range from 11 per cent to 20 per cent.
Technical evaluation committee of the Commission will announce the extent of possible tariff hike prior to public hearings, BERC Member Dr Selim Mahmud said.
The public hearings of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and West Zone Power Distribution Company (WZPDC) will be held on Tuesday.
Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC) and Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) will hold public hearings on their proposed tariff hikes on Wednesday.
The last public hearing on the electricity tariff hike will be held Thursday when the Rural Electrification Board (REB) will have to justify the hike.
The announcement of fresh electricity tariff hike may be made by end of this month but the tariff hike will have retrospective effect from March 1, 2014, said sources.
Officials said, the move for fresh tariff hike of electricity got momentum following a go ahead nod from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the minister of the MPEMR on February 6 last.
Since 2009 the BERC increased retail electricity tariff six times with the latest in September 2012.
The energy regulator hiked average bulk and retail electricity tariff by 16.92 per cent and 15 per cent during the latest hike on September 20, 2012.
After that hike all the electricity distribution companies again submitted proposals for further hike in electricity tariff in December 2012.
The commission also had held public hearings on the tariff hike proposals and decided to increase the tariff by 5.0 per cent on an average.
But the decision was halted following advice from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to avoid public criticism before the general election.
The technical evaluation committee of the BERC then had recommended a hike in electricity tariff by 3.30 per cent for DPDC and 3.65 per cent for DESCO consumers.
DESCO had sought to raise the power tariff at the consumer level by an average of 11.69 per cent while the DPDC proposed an 11.31 per cent increase.
The BERC evaluation committee had recommended 4.84 per cent and 4.15 per cent hikes in retail electricity tariffs for the consumers of BPDB and WZPDC.
The BPDB had sought 12 per cent hike in retail electricity tariff, while the WZPDC proposed 9.59 per cent hike.
The BPDB argued that it will incur a loss of Tk 5.16 billion this year if the tariff is not hiked.
The commission, however, opposed retail tariff hike proposal of the REB saying that the REB did not provide accurate information.
The cost of electricity has been rising as the government adopted short-term measures of installing dozens of high-cost diesel and furnace oil-fired rental power plants to ease the country's mounting electricity crisis.
The cost of power supply to bulk customers in September, 2011 was Tk 4.15 per unit.
It rose to around Tk 6.8 per unit by fiscal year 2012-13, a senior BPDB official said.
It averaged Tk 2.62 per unit in fiscal 2009-10, he added.