BERC hearing: Don’t raise gas price now

Public life has become unbearable with the soaring price of daily commodities. It is being predicted that the price will rise even further during the holy Ramadan

It is proved yet again that Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) doesn’t even have minimum transparency or accountability. The agency could not answer many of the questions, raised at the public hearing organised by Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) on Monday. Also the data and information, presented by them, was inconsistent.

At the beginning of the hearing, Petrobangla proposed to set the gas price at Tk 15.30 per unit (cubic metre). Whereas, the technical evaluation committee said Petrobangla’s cost is only Tk 12.47. Earlier, while hiking the price, gas import was estimated at 850 million (85 crore) cubic metres per day on average. In actuality, Petrobangla’s daily import was 290 million (29 crore) cubic metre less than the amount. This way, Petrobangla earned Tk 25 billion (2,500 crore) extra.

In the 2019 gas price hike order, wholesale price was set at Tk 12.60 per cubic metre. BERC directed to sell that at Tk 9.37 after providing subsidy on per unit. Then gas price was hiked once again in 2020, considering Petrobangla’s cost at Tk 12.60 per cubic metre. Although consumers paid only Tk 9.36 on average, the rest of it was paid to Petrobangla as subsidy by energy security fund and government treasury.

CAB senior vice-president and energy expert M. Shamsul Alam has urged to reduce Petrobangla’s deficit by cutting down various taxes and wastage instead of hiking gas price.

Energy expert Badrul Imam also believes, despite there being a huge reserve of gas in the country, Petrobangla is importing LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) at increased price instead of going for extraction. This is making the energy sector dependent on others while, consumers are paying an extra price.

BERC chairman Abdul Jalil said People’s lives have become miserable as the price of various commodities has gone up in the context of Russia-Ukraine war and other global issues. The commission will take a decision only after thorough analysis. They will not force something illogically. He advised Petrobangla to present clear information.

However, what certainties are there that Petrobangla will not try to cover up even after BERC chairman’s warning. Petrobangla is showing a system loss of 8 per cent, whereas in other countries system loss stands at only 2 per cent. Illegal gas connections have not been cut either. When the news comes in media, authorities conduct drives only for show. Meanwhile, the initiative of supplying prepaid metres has also failed badly. Transmission companies have no interests in these cases. They are mostly busy in cutting people’s pocket.

Public life has become unbearable with the soaring price of daily commodities. It is being predicted that the price will rise even further during the holy Ramadan. On top of that, if gas price is hiked it will be a deadly blow on people, already struggling to survive.

So, we will request concerned people to quit the idea of raising gas price at the moment. The same logic goes for water and power. Government can save more than the extra revenue that will be generated by increasing the prices of these services, if able to stop theft and waste in the name of system loss.