Titas hikes monthly rent of prepaid gas meter

The state-run Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd has increased monthly rent of prepaid gas meters by 66.66 per cent to Tk 100 per meter with effect from July 1.
Titas Gas currently has a total of 320,000 customers who use prepaid meters for natural gas consumption, a senior official of the company told the FE on Tuesday.
"We have a target to provide prepaid gas meters to all the 2.80 million Titas Gas consumers by 2024," he said.
With the hike in meter rent, the company will now be able to add an amount of around Tk 12.80 million to its coffers every month, said the official.
The amount will increase twentyfold to around Tk 250 million every month when all the targeted number of prepaid meters is installed with the rate of current meter rent remaining unchanged, he clarified.
Titas Gas currently receives around Tk 32 million every month as meter rent from prepaid gas meter users.
The government instruction may come to increase fur ther the monthly rent of prepaid meters to cope with the growing costs.
The government has an instruction to provide prepaid gas meters to all the domestic natural gas consumers to check misuse and pilferage, the company official said.
The issue of raising the monthly rent from Tk 60 to Tk 100 per meter was approved by the Executive Committee for National Economic Council (ECNEC) when the development project proposal for the pre-paid meters was approved.
Titas Gas board later endorsed it for implementation, the official added.
He, however, said any prior approval from the country's energy regulator was not needed to this effect.
If the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) had to hear the issue, the hike could have been much higher, he said, adding that the cost of a single pre-paid meter was around Tk 24,000.
Besides, the monthly gas bill charge of domestic users, who use prepaid meters, is very low to the tune of around Tk 500- 600 per month, he said justifying the hike.
Currently, another natural gas distribution company - Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd - provides prepaid gas meters to its consumers.
Karnaphuli Gas has been charging Tk 100 as monthly rent from its prepaid gas meter consumers since December 2019 after endorsement from the company's board of directors, said a senior official of the organisation.
Any BERC official was, however, not available for comment on this issue.
The BERC hiked natural gas tariff for all types of consumers by 22.78 per cent on an average from June.
The new weighted average natural gas tariff is Tk 11.91 per cubic metre, which was Tk 9.70 per cubic metre previously.

azizjst@yahoo.com