Minister hints at power price hike

State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid yesterday said a proposal had been sent to Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission seeking adjustment to the electricity tariff, indicating a hike by Tk 0.30 per unit.

"It's a regular phenomenon to submit proposal to the regulator. Now, it's up to the regulator to take the decision," he told reporters at his ministry.

The state minister said they had to send the price-hike proposal due to the higher petroleum price that public sector plants had to pay.

He, however, said had the public sector power plants been allowed to get similar facilities like those in the private sector in importing petroleum fuel for power plants, it might have not been required to adjust the power tariff.

Official sources said the private sector power plants were now getting 9 percent concession on the import of petroleum directly from the international market for their power plants.

But the public sector entities do not avail the facilities as they have to buy petroleum fuel from the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation.

"If we get similar facilities, it will be a great relief for the power sector, and we don't need to go for electricity price adjustment," Nasrul said.

Last time, the power tariff was raised by 2.9 percent on an average in September 2015.

The state minister said the government planned to provide electricity to all houses by December 2018.

To achieve the goal, about 3,000MW power will be added to the national grid in the next one year.

He added that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would inaugurate two power plants on September 10 through videoconferencing.

Of them, one is the 450MW plant in Ashuganj, and the other is the 108MW plant in Keraniganj.