Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission is not likely to allow the Dhaka Electric Supply Company to increase the price of electricity for consumers, commission officials told New Age after a public hearing on Wednesday on the company’s proposal to hike power price.
‘Most of the participants at the hearing opposed the DESCO proposal to hike the electricity price for consumers by 10-14.77 per cent as the company has been making huge profits selling electricity. We also think that there is no need to increase the power price at the moment,’ said an official of the commission. The commission chairman, Ghulam Rahman, conducted the hearing at his office.
An official told New Age that there was a ‘huge chance’ that the commission would not allow DESCO to increase electricity tariff when it passed its order by May 15.
‘However, the ultimate decision on whether the company will be allowed to increase electricity tariffs will be taken after the company submits its post-hearing comments by February 28,’ he said.
The DESCO recently filed an application with the commission to increase the power price for consumers after the commission in October 2008 allowed the Power Development Board to increase by around 16 per cent the price of electricity which DESCO purchases from the board to supply to the consumers.
Sources in the commission said that the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, recently had indicated to the commission that the government would not like any price hike of electricity for consumers in near future.
The official, however, said that the commission’s decision ‘would not depend on what the government likes or dislikes’. ‘We are an independent commission. As we have found that DESCO is still making a profit of Tk 0.5 per unit of electricity after the PDB hiked the price, we may not allow DESCO to increase the price for the consumers,’ he said.
Participants including the representatives of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Consumers Trust, opposed the DESCO proposal to hike the power price.
DESCO managing director, Saleh Ahmed said that they wanted to hike the price as the company was counting additional monthly electricity bills of Tk 9 crore after the PDB increased the price.
He said that they would expand the supply network and renovate the existing ones if the electricity price was hiked. ‘We have reduced the system loss, which now stands at 10.92 per cent and if the supply system can be renovated the system loss will come down,’ he claimed.
CAB representatives said that DESCO had earned about Tk 207 crore in 2007-2008 and there was no need to allow the company to make further profits.
DCCI representatives said that if the electricity price was increased the cost of production of industries would also increase, which meant that the Bangladeshi products would lose competitiveness in the world market.
A commissioner told New Age although it was commendable that the company had decreased the system loss to 10.92 per cent from over 20 per cent, it should decrease the system loss further. ‘We will give directives to DESCO when we announce the verdict on the DESCO application,’ he said.
The commission will hold more public hearing next month on the proposals of the Dhaka Power Distribution Company and the West Zone Power Distribution Company to hike electricity prices for their consumers.
Courtesy of www.newagebd.com
