Published : 03 Jun 2026, 12:27 AM
Updated : 08 Sep 2026, 09:12 AM
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) is set to announce its decision on the proposals to increase the wholesale, transmission and retail rates of electricity.
In a media statement on Tuesday, the commission said the decision will be disclosed at a press briefing at the BERC office in Dhaka’s Ramna at 3pm on Wednesday.
The disclosure will clarify whether or not the existing electricity rates will remain unchanged.
Public hearings on proposals submitted by the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) and power transmission and distribution utilities have already concluded.
The regulator conducted these public hearings on May 20 and 21.
The decision awaits the citizens at a time when the country is sizzling in a heatwave, with at least two such spells forecast for June.
Higher temperatures mean more use of electricity, especially in urban areas.
According to the BPDB, there is a huge gap between the current wholesale price and the cost of electricity generation and supply.
Therefore, the price needs to be increased to eliminate the huge deficit.
The power company told the hearing that its financial deficit in the 2025-26 fiscal year could be around Tk 600 billion.
At the hearing, stakeholders objected to the proposals, arguing that the electricity sector cannot be seen as a profit-oriented business.
The burden of capacity charges, system losses, project costs, and inefficiency cannot be imposed on consumers, they said, calling for finding ways to reduce prices instead of increasing them.
The wholesale electricity price was last revised in February 2024.
At that time, the average wholesale rate was increased from Tk 6.70 to Tk 7.04 per unit.
An increase in wholesale electricity price also pushes up the purchasing costs of distribution companies.
Therefore, industry stakeholders fear that there may be changes in retail electricity bills as well.
However, in the past, the BERC has not always given the same decision at the wholesale and retail levels.
As a result, it is not possible to say for sure whether electricity prices will increase at the retail level before Wednesday's announcement.
