Move to up power price: Public hearing on Sept 25

In a fresh move to increase electricity tariff, Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) is set to conduct a public hearing on Power Development Board's proposal to increase 12 and 15 per cent price hike of electricity at retail and bulk level respectively from September 25, sources said.
BERC has taken up the decision on Wednesday evening at a meeting with BERC Chairman Monwar Islam in the chair.
According to sources Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sat with the Energy Adviser, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Power Secretary, BERC Chairman on Tuesday and discussed tariff issues.
According to the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), it wants to increase electricity tariff at retail by 12 per cent and at bulk level by 15 per cent.
"We are set to rationalize the tariff, whether the price would be increased or not is not at all an issue, but we need to restructure the tariff chart, discuss fuel mix issue and discuss the use of liquid fuel at larger scale in power production, so we need to share all these issues with the consumers," a senior official of the Power Division said.
To increase power production, Petrobangla will import LNG as government has decided to supply 500 mmcf gas (in LNG form) and BPDB inked 1700 MW plus liquid fuel based power projects recently.  The initiative is likely to increase the price of electricity shortly, according to the sources, BPDB in its proposal said.
State-run BPDB has submitted a proposal to the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) On March 9 this year. The proposal urged the regulator to hike retail prices by Tk 0.98 per unit, saying it was necessary to increase retail tariff to Tk 7.71 from Tk 6.73 and wholesale tariff to Tk 5.59 from Tk 4.87, sources said.
Power Board spends Tk 5.59 for generating one unit of electricity. The board also purchases electricity from other public and private utility providers while it sells the power to the power distribution utilities at Tk 4.87 per unit, sources said.
"Currently, consumers are paying 5 per cent VAT on electricity price. At the same time the BPDB is also paying the same VAT on their fuel purchase bill. Against this backdrop, Finance Ministry asked BPDB to include this VAT in the consumers' bills"; so, we need to share all these issues with the consumers, he added.
A senior BERC official said that electricity distribution companies needed to change their billing forms, which currently includes a 5 per cent VAT rate. As per the new law, there will be no separate figures showing VAT percentages in the billing papers as the VAT will be included in the bills.
The energy regulator found itself in a fix after both the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Power Division were in a state of confusion regarding how to adjust the VAT with the electricity price.
The Energy Commission raised the price of bulk electricity by 3.62 per cent, up from Tk 4.70 per unit to Tk 4.87 per unit, at the same time, the commission increased the retail prices of electricity by 3.62 per cent, up from Tk 6.10 per unit to Tk 6.33 per unit last time.