Titas Gas plays with consumer figure

The Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company has stopped feeding households for a few years now, but the number of its domestic consumers has grown by 35 per cent between July 2016 and June 2017.

The company, one of the six state-owned distribution entities, sells almost 60 per cent of gas Bangladesh produces from its fields. It covers 12 districts, including Dhaka, reports bdnews24.com.

Its top official Mir Moshiur Rahman says it happened as they have moved to digitalise database from manual ledgers. Consumer rights activists, however, find the explanation lame and the numbers are fudged.

M Shamsul Alam, the energy affairs adviser to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), says that cannot be the case.

The Anti-Corruption Commission is investigating several Titas officials on corruption charges, which include supplying gas through illegal connections.

According to Titas annual report, its household consumers numbered nearly 2.01 million until June 2016 and within a year it jumped to 2.71 million.

Gas connections to households have been stopped for a few years, two senior officials of Titas and PetroBangla, the state owned oil, gas and mineral corporation, have confirmed.

According to them, the only thing concerning household gas supply now happening is installation of 200,000 pre-paid gas metres across capital Dhaka.

Titas Managing Director Rahman's explanation to the jump in the consumer figure is, "There had been some inconsistencies on the records, which have been updated".