Originally posted in The Business Standard on 18 May 2022
At present, BPDB currently sells per unit of electricity at Tk5.17
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has recommended hiking bulk electricity price by 57.83%.
The recommendation was made on Wednesday during a day-long public hearing on the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) proposal to hike bulk electricity tariffs by 66%.
At present, BPDB currently sells per unit of electricity at Tk5.17 to the electricity distribution companies which was increased in the last tariff order in February 2020.
They proposed to increase the price by Tk3.39 per unit in January. However, BERC technical team recommended today to hike the price by Tk2.99.
BPDB, the sole wholesaler of electricity, is buying from its own generation as well as from imported and privately-owned power plants.
They are also selling at wholesale prices to five distribution companies and distributing in the urban areas of Mymensingh, Sylhet and Chattogram divisions.
According to BPDB’s proposal, the cost of generating electricity from oil has gone up due to the non-availability of gas supply as per the demand.
The average production cost of electricity was Tk2.13 in FY 2019-20 which increased to Tk3.16 in FY 2020-21.
The cost of power generation per unit will stand at Tk4.24 in 2022 due to an increase in fuel oil price and coal VAT.
If the wholesale price does not increase, BPDB will lose over Tk30,000 crore in 2022.
The hearing was attended by the DPBD Director General and officials at various levels, alongside chairman and members of BERC.
