Electricity to be 57 pc costlier

Saleh Ahmed Husain: The technical team of Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has recommended to increase the price of electricity by 56.73 percent at the wholesale level. The recommendation was made at a public hearing held at the Biam Foundation auditorium in the capital yesterday.
Earlier, the Power Development Board proposed to increase the wholesale price of electricity by 65.56 percent. There is a proposal of Tk 3.39 per unit. In contrast, BERC’s recommendation is Tk 2.99 per unit. Through this, BERC recommended to increase the price by 56.63 percent.
It may be mentioned that at present the Power Development Board is selling electricity at a wholesale rate of Tk 5.18 per unit. In that case the government is giving a subsidy of Tk 3.39.
In that case the government is giving a subsidy of Tk 3.39. But without subsidy, the power development board had proposed to increase it to Tk 8.57 per unit. The Director General of Power Cell, Director and officials of various levels concerned organisations and the Chairman of BERC and members of the technical team were present at the public hearing on the application to increase the price of electricity.