Gas tariff raised by 11.22 pc

Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) on Saturday enhanced the price of gas by 11.22 percent with immediate effect.
According to the increased price chart, residential consumers will have to pay Taka 450 for two burners instead of present Taka 400 and Taka 400 for single burner instead of Taka 350 per month.
The last increase in gas price was made on January 1, 2005.
BERC acting chairman Mukhlesur Rahman told BSS that the regulatory body asked the state-run Petrobangla to form a “gas development fund” for massive exploration in view of dwindling gas reserves in the country.
“The surplus amount would be derived from the price rise could be used for intensified exploration,” Rahman said. Under the revised price chart, the state-run Power Development Board (PDB) will have to pay Taka 79.8 for per thousand cubic feet gas, while the captive power suppliers would have to pay Taka 118.26.
The fertilizer producing units will have to pay Taka 72.92 for per unit usage of gas and the industries will need to pay Taka 165.9 for per unit gas.
The commercial consumers will have to pay Taka 268.09 for per unit of gas.
The BERC directive said the BAPEX, the country’s lone exploration company has failed to carry out significant oil and gas exploration activities over the past decade due to lack of sufficient funds, so the surplus amount would be use to form the gas development fund.
The accumulated amount would be around Taka 717 crore annually. According to the Petrobangla, it pays IOC’s 480 million US dollar per year as gas bill. Currently the IOC’s gas output surpassed that of the local’s as their combined gas output reached over 52 per cent of our total production (1900mmcf).
“For last ten years the IOC’s did not go for any exploration in the country, on the other hand the BAPEX has not enough fund and strength to do the job so the country is facing severe gas shortage which is now around 200 mmcf per day and if we fail to create such fund for the development of the gas sector then situation would be worse day by day”, Professor M.Tamim, former adviser of the caretaker government and a BUET teacher said.
Mokehlesur Rahman, BERC acting Chairman told the agency that, “we did not like to see a skeleton Petrobangla that gives all its milk to the IOC’s. We want to see that it will take measures to strengthen our own company to carry out the risky exploration job, so we have imposed a condition when they applied for price hike of gas last year”, he added.
Petrobangla in June 2008 applied to the commission for allowing it to increase gas price by 65 per cent at consumers level. The BERC conducted a public hearing on it and imposed a condition for raising the gas tariff and said that Petrobangla would be allowed to increase gas price by 10 to 15 per cent if it creates a fund with the money, which will come from the increased price of gas.
The BERC order said that the fund must be utilised exclusively for gas sector development that includes exploration, production, transmission and distribution.

Courtesy of BSS, Dhaka