Berc recommendation: Pre-paid gas users victimised

Households with pre-paid meters will suffer most if the recommendation of the 43 percent hike in gas price is implemented -- a development that can slow down the installation of the meters.

About four lakh pre-paid meters have been installed to enforce a watchful consumption since those were introduced about a decade ago, according to the data submitted by the six gas distribution companies. A total of 43 lakh households have piped gas connections.

The proposed hike came from the technical evaluation committee of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission at the public hearing held last week.

"We found the existing billing system for the non-metered household users is excessive in comparison with the meter users," said Kamruzzaman, BERC's deputy director for tariff while presenting the recommendations at the public hearing.

A pre-paid user consumes 35-45 cubic metres of gas on an average in a month, which costs Tk 400-550, the BERC found. A non-metered user has to pay Tk 925-975 per month-- for 73-75 cubic metres.

The committee recommended increasing the tariff for per cubic meter gas to Tk 18 from the existing Tk 12.6 for the pre-paid households. Subsequently, 35-45 cubic metres of gas consumption will set the households back by Tk 630-810 a month.

The Daily Star spoke with a host of pre-paid households and all seemed frustrated with the recommendation.

"We welcomed the pre-paid meters as a good initiative as it reduced our cost on gas drastically. If it becomes a burden to us, nobody will cooperate with the government with such good initiatives later," said Tuhin Rahman, a pre-paid meter user at the capital's West Nakhalpara.

Meanwhile, the BERC recommended hiking the tariff for double burners at non-metered households to Tk 1,080 from 975 and to Tk 990 from Tk 925 for a single burner.

Here, the committee recommended preparing the bill assuming gas consumption of 55 to 60 cubic metres per month.

Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, termed the recommendation as "discriminatory".

"First of all, at this moment, there is no logical ground to increase the gas price as people are already under the pressure of inflation."

The government should much rather deploy other methods like reducing the taxes, increasing subsidy allocation for liquefied natural gas imports, using the profits of previous years or taking short-term loans from abroad.

The logic behind the committee's recommendation for a gas price hike should be transparent.

"It will encourage those who use gas more than they need. It should be considered," he said, adding that how could the households get the highest hike proposal instead of the industries or captive power plants.

For the power sector, the per cubic metre of gas will cost Tk 1.1 more at Tk 5.34 and for the captive power plants Tk 1.65 more at Tk 15.50.

For fertiliser factories, it will cost Tk 5.34 instead of Tk 4.45, for tea industries Tk 12.65 instead of Tk 10.70.

For commercial users like hotels and restaurants, a Tk 4.6 hike per cubic metre of the gas tariff has been recommended and for CNG feeds Tk 6.5.

The small and cottage industries will see their gas tariff come down by 32 percent, while the large and mid-sized industries will face an increase of about 18 percent.