Companies fail to justify gas price hike plea

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has been conducting a 4-day hearing on appeals of different gas distribution entities for raising gas tariff on account of importing LNG to meet the growing demand.
The companies are unable to realize that the import of gas right now is impossible as construction of a major gas pipeline is yet to be completed.
"The proposed Anwara-Moheshkhali 79 kilometer gas pipeline only could bring the gas into the grid line, so it would need a long time to install the line," a senior official of the Energy Division, preferring anonymity, told the Daily Observer on Wednesday.
Now we could only bring 660 mmcf of gas, he added.
Despite knowing all these reality BERC allowed the companies to conduct the hearing but unfortunately the state-owned gas distribution companies have failed to justify their gas price hike proposals in the last three days of the public hearing on gas price hike by spending time and money.
The energy regulatory body has allowed the five
gas transmission and distribution companies to discuss their proposals in the hearing using the independent platform as government would face serious problem to pay its LNG import bills to the international companies as another 500 mmcf of LNG would be injected into the national grid from April 2019 but the proposals presented by the four companies in the last four days did not substantiate their pleas.
"In October, 2018 the government asked for extra price for 1,000 LNG import. But the government was fully aware that it will not be possible to import this gas by April this year, it increased the price and now it (government ) is violating the BERC Act, as per the Act it cannot increase the price twice in a year," Adviser to Consumers Association of Bangladesh Prof Shamsul Alam said.
On completion of the hearing, the BERC will take the final decision on the proposals within 90 days.
"We cannot afford any rise in the gas tariff as we're already facing challenges due to increase in our production cost," said Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, representatives from different consumer groups, including individuals, business bodies and chambers, who took part in the hearing strongly opposed the Titas proposals saying that any raise in gas tariff will be detrimental to the country's economy as they will have to count an extra cost which will make them non-competitive in the global market.
"BERC conducted hearing on the Bakharabad Gas Distribution Company Ltd (BGDCL) and Jalalabad Gas Distribution Companies Ltd (JGDCL)'s proposal on Wednesday, since all pipeline in the areas and the consumers' classification is different under the JGDCL areas, we rejected their proposal of fresh hike of gas price," a Commission member said.
However, during Wednesday's hearing on JSTDS, BERC has expressed unhappiness over the system gain of Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution System (JGTDS) as it sales extra 1.12 per cent natural gas against the bulk purchase.