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Published : 21 May 2026, 07:14 PM
Stakeholders at a public hearing have opposed proposals to increase retail electricity prices, urging the state regulator to focus on trimming institutional costs and rooting out corruption rather than squeezing consumers further.
On the final day of the two-day public consultation organised by the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh, power sector experts, left-leaning politicians, and business leaders argued that the energy sector should be treated as a cost-to-cost public service rather than a profit-making enterprise.
They demanded that the financial fallout from capacity charges, high system losses, and inflated project costs no longer be passed on to everyday citizens.
During the session, six state-owned power distribution utilities presented their respective proposals to adjust retail tariffs.
According to the BERC Technical Evaluation Committee, the distribution companies proposed increasing their per-unit distribution margins by up to Tk 2.05 per unit.
NESCO sought the highest hike at Tk 2.05 per unit, followed by DESCO at Tk 1.98 and REB at Tk 1.77. DPDC proposed a hike of Tk 1.54 per unit, while WZPDCO sought an increase of Tk 1.39. PDB proposed the lowest increase at Tk 0.85 per unit.
The technical committee countered these demands by calculating a lower weighted average net distribution cost of Tk 1.25 per unit across the board.
The committee estimated the total net distribution expenditure for the six utilities at Tk 119.27 billion for the 2025-26 fiscal year, against a projected sale of 95,613 million units of electricity.
Official data presented at the hearing showed that as of March 2026, the cumulative consumer base of these six utilities stood at over 49.8 million, including 42.5 million household connections and nearly 28 million "lifeline" consumers, users with the lowest electricity consumption.
The Rural Electrification Board (REB) holds the largest share, catering to over 39.1 million consumers.
The proposed tariff restructuring drew heavy criticism from civil society members.
Ruhin Hossain Prince, former general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), argued that BERC should be discussing ways to lower tariffs instead of increasing them.
He proposed that the commission advise the government to provide up to 75 units of electricity free of charge to low-income households.
Criticising the move to alter consumption slabs, Prince said: "This is just another mechanism to pick the pockets of the low- and middle-income groups under the guise of restructuring lifeline brackets."
Moshahida Sultana, a teacher at Dhaka University, pointed out that the massive financial drainage in the sector stems from flaws in private power agreements.
"We are paying astronomical sums as capacity charges for idle overcapacity. The contracts with independent power producers (IPPs) and rental power plants must be re-evaluated immediately," she said.
The participants also remarked that unless companies addressed institutional corruption, inefficiency, and bloated administrative costs, tweaking tariffs would never solve the underlying crisis.
Representing heavy industries, Mohammed Jahangir Alam of the Bangladesh Steel Manufacturers Association pointed out that bulk industrial consumers (230kV, 132kV, and 33kV) fund and build their own substations and transmission lines.
"We operate with zero system losses and have set up the grid infrastructure with our own money. It is unjust to force the burden of standard system losses onto us," Alam argued.
He demanded an exemption from recurring monthly demand charges, a review of power-factor penalties, and a mechanism to adjust the interest accrued on their utility security deposits directly against monthly bills.
In its observations, the BERC technical committee recommended against categorising private educational institutions, hospitals, or medical colleges as "commercial" consumers.
It also proposed introducing a flat-rate residential tariff for slum dwellers and suggested implementing a strict ban on using residential lines to commercially charge electric autorickshaws.
Concluding the two-day hearing, BERC Chairman Jalal Ahmed assured stakeholders that all testimonies, empirical data, and written briefs -- which can be submitted until May 23, 2026 -- would be scrutinised before a final order is issued.
In a stern warning to utility executives, the chairman said state bodies must consult BERC before placing any power, gas, or petroleum project proposals before the Planning Commission.
"We will view it very seriously if any project bypasses BERC's evaluation during its formulation stage," Jalal said.
"The volume of subsidies required for capacity charges has increased exponentially. This has undoubtedly been detrimental to the nation," Ahmed said.
