No Electricity Price Hike For Now: BERC

The price of electricity is not increasing at the wholesale level, the previous price will remain the same. Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) announced this from a press conference held online today Thursday (October 13).

Considering the overall situation, they have decided not to increase the price of electricity. This decision will remain in force until further orders.

BERC Chairman Abdul Jalil, Member Maqbul E Elahi, Member Bazlur Rahman, Member Abu Farooq, Member Md Kamruzzaman, Secretary Khalilur Rahman and others were present in the press conference.

The chairman said in the conference that PDB submitted a proposal to re-determine the wholesale price of electricity on January 12. Then on May 18, a public hearing was held on their proposal. After reviewing everything, the commission held a meeting this morning and took the final decision. The price was not re-fixed after considering all their proposals. The previous price will remain.

Earlier, on May 18, the commission held a public hearing on PDB's proposal to increase electricity prices. According to the rules, a decision is to be taken within 90 working days after the public hearing. The 90 working days period for the public hearing will end on October 14. So they decided to make an announcement on Thursday.

In the public hearing held on May 18 to raise the wholesale price of electricity, PDB requested to increase the price by about 66 percent. At that time, the technical evaluation committee formed by BERC recommended a 58 percent price hike without subsidy and no price hike with subsidy.

BERC last fixed the wholesale rate of electricity at 5 taka 17 paise per unit in February 2020.