Tariff Hike Withdrawn for Use Up to 75 Units of Electricity
- Govt to Provide Nearly Tk700 Crore in Additional Subsidy
- New Prices Takes Effect
Representational Image. Collected.
Residential consumers using up to 75 units of electricity per month will not have to pay the increased price. They will have the opportunity to pay their bills at the previous rates. One day after announcing the electricity price hike, the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) announced this decision today, Thursday.
There are six tiers for residential electricity consumption. The first tier is 0–50 units, and the second tier is 0–75 units. Low-income and lower-middle-class consumers typically fall under these two tiers.
On Wednesday, when BERC announced the new electricity rates, prices were also increased for marginal and low-income users. In those two categories, the price per unit had been increased by 69 paisa and 92 paisa respectively.
Later, considering the situation of the marginal population, the Power Division sent a letter to BERC requesting the withdrawal of the additional price hike. At the same time, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) also applied for the withdrawal of the additional price hike for residential lifeline and first-tier consumers. In response, after discussions with all distribution companies, BERC issued an order withdrawing the additional price hike.
As a result, for residential 'lifeline' category consumers, the previous price of 4.63 taka per unit will remain, and for first-tier consumers using up to 75 units, the price will be 5.26 taka per unit.
Earlier, in the price hike proposal, the BPDB had indicated that prices for these two categories should not be increased. However, prices were increased after considering the proposal of the Rural Electrification Board (REB). Now, with no price increase, the government will have to provide an additional subsidy of nearly 700 crore taka.
It should be noted that yesterday, wholesale electricity prices were increased by an average of 19.85 percent, transmission charges by 23.96 percent, and consumer-level electricity prices by an average of 16.68 percent. The new prices will take effect from June.
