Titas proposes hiking double burner price by Tk 512 claiming losses
Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company proposed increasing the prices of both single and double burners by Tk 390 and Tk 512 respectively per month, claiming they are incurring losses and facing technical glitches while maintaining the prices set by Bangladesh energy regulatory commission (BERC).
In June last year, BIRC fixed the gas price at Tk 18 per cubic metre. Besides the commission set the amount of monthly gas usage for non-metred domestic users at 60 cubic metres for double burner and 55 cubic metres for single burner.
As a result, the bill of double burner stood at Tk 1080 and single burner at Tk 990 per month -- a decision that was questioned by the Titas gas 10 months after it was taken.
The gas distribution company recently sent a letter to BERC -- where they alleged BERC fixed the amount of gas usage at cubic metre for nearly 2.5 million users without carrying out any survey or analysing any data, resulting in the increase of technical glitches and financial losses.
However, a BERC source denied the allegation and said they carried out an analysis with the prepaid metre gas bills of 320,000 users from Titas gas and 50,000 from Karnaphuli gas distribution company in Chattogram.
In the analysis, it was found that the double burner users use 45 cubic metres of gas per month. So they fixed the amount at 60 cubic metres for non-metred double burner users saying the amount will be decreased in the future.
BERC former member, Maqbul-E-Elahi Chowdhury, told Prothom Alo on Tuesday that they determined the amount of usage following a scrutiny though the commission sought to decrease it more. But they didn't do so. The commission gave a warning to Titas gas instead.
A quarter is making hefty profit by providing illegal connections and is imposing the burden of technical glitches on non-metred users, he added.
BERC chairman Md Nurul Amin on Tuesday told Prothom Alo that the commission has accepted the proposal of Titas for consideration. Steps will be taken as per the rules and regulations.