Govt plans to raise power price through executive power

The undemocratic government takes undemocratic decisions. Soon after raising the bulk price of electricity by 19.92 per cent at this crisis time when people are struggling to make ends meet, the cabinet again on Monday approved a draft amendment to the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) Act enabling the government to adjust energy prices through executive order bypassing the commission. Once it is passed into law, the existence of the regulatory commission will lose its significance, but the commission was established in 2003 for fixing reasonable tariffs of power, gas and fuel oil as well as protecting consumers’ interest.
At the time of raising the bulk electricity price, it was said from the government that at the retail level the price of electricity would remain unchanged. People clearly understood the message: soon at the retailers’ level also price will be increased, and here is now the draft amendment to adjust the energy price by the executive power. The cabinet secretary said that the government would exercise the new provision on ‘special needs’. Indeed, it is time for this special need!
If electricity at the retail level is again raised, it will quickly impact commodity prices as some time ago fuel prices did. The fuel price was hiked by a record margin of more than 50 per cent reportedly by the executive order. Consequently, the bite of inflation has become such that many people are passing hungry nights.
Why is the economy driven to its present perilous state? The impacts of Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia war are not for Bangladesh alone. The whole world is directly or indirectly facing these twin problems. But for Bangladesh, they have exposed the lies the government was telling people about ‘development’ as well as mismanagement and corruption through which public money was squandered and laundered out of the country.
The government that has no mandate to remain in power for a single day but continued to remain in power for about a decade itself has pushed crores of people to fall back to poverty again through its wrong policy of reserves use and unhindered corruption in the name of development. It is oppression and injustice that most people are bearing the burden due to the greed for power and money of the few.
The government needs money to remain in power and, as far as hiking power prices is concerned, it cannot wait for the mandatory 90 days needed for the BERC to adjust energy prices for review. This government’s injustice and oppression must end now.