Gas price hiked up to 179pc for industries

Staff Reporter :
Within a week after increasing the power prices at retail level, the government has increased the gas prices for power, industries, and commercial (hotel and restaurant) sectors by up to 179 per cent.
The new prices will be effective from February 1, said a gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources on Wednesday.
However, gas prices for four other consumer types — household, tea industry, compressed natural gas, and fertilizer will remain unchanged.
According to the gazette notification, power producers would now have to pay Tk 14 for a cubic meter of gas following a 179 per cent increase on its previous price of Tk 5.02.
Captive power producers saw an increase of 88 per cent in the gas price.
Small, cottage and other consumers saw their gas price rise by 178 per cent, followed by 155 per cent rise in the price of gas used by medium industry and 150 per cent rise for large industry gas consumer.
Commercial gas consumers such as hotels and restaurants saw their gas price go up by more than 14 per cent.
The retail gas price has been readjusted under the authority vested in Section 34 (ka) of the Bangladesh Energy regulatory Act, 2003, the gazette notification said.
The government, for the second time in less than a week, used its newly-granted power (which allows it to set all kinds of energy prices bypassing the regulator’s jurisdictions at any time) to hike gas prices without any public hearing.
Earlier on 12 January, the government had announced a five per cent increase in electricity prices to Tk 7.48 per kilowatt hour at the retail level.
Earlier on June 4, 2022, Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) raised the average price of gas by 22.78 per cent for retail consumers.
Meanwhile, some industrialists have said that the gas tariff hike could harm Bangladesh’s business competitiveness.
They also said that the industry will not survive if prices are raised frequently without addressing the ongoing gas crisis.
However, the section of the BERC ACT was amended in December enabling the government to change electricity prices by executive order, bypassing the BERC.
With the latest hike, the price of gas, which meets 60 per cent of the country’s energy demand, was increased nine times since the incumbent government assumed power in 2009.
Earlier on November 21, 2022, the government has raised the bulk power tariff by 19.92 per cent with effect from December, the same year.