Titas Gas raises emergency balance ceiling for prepaid consumers

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company has raised the emergency balance of pre-paid household consumers to Tk 2000 from the existing Tk 200 during the government-declared general holidays, said the company’s MD Ali Mohammad Al Mamun.

A pre-paid consumer of Titas Gas receives gas of Tk 200 as emergency balance to continue the gas flow in his oven in case of running out of current balance.

“But now the pre-paid consumers will get gas of Tk 2000 as emergency balance”, Mamun told news agency UNB.

He said gas of Tk 2000 emergency balance means a four-month equivalent gas as generally a consumer uses gas of maximum Tk 500 in a month.

Mamun noted that after the increase in the amount of emergency balance, the consumers will not need to recharge their pre-paid cards during the holidays as they will get time to use the emergency balance.

The Titas Gas chief executive said that despite such measures, the vendors and its designated bank, United Commercial Bank Ltd, are instructed to cooperate with the consumers to recharge their balance.

The names of recharge vendors and bank are available on the official websites (titasgas.org.bd) of the Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd.

Titas Gas officials said the measures have been taken in line with the government’s decision to relax the gas bill payment during the government-declared general holidays to prevent coronavirus outbreak in the country.

As per the decision, the household consumers will not be charged extra for delayed payment of gas bills until June this year.

An official circular issued by the energy and mineral resources division said a huge number of household consumers have to be present in the banks to pay gas bills which may increase the risks of coronavirus transmission.

Considering this, the government has decided to relax the household consumers’ bill payment timeframe as defined by Gas Distribution Regulations, 2014, it said adding that the consumers can now pay their bills of February-May at any convenient time in June 2020 without any extra charge.

Meanwhile, the power division has issued a similar circular asking the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) to take steps to relax the deadline for payment of February-April bills.