Electricity prices may hike in March

The government may increase the price of electricity from March. Several officials of the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources ministry have given such a glimpse. They said that the process of publication of gazette notification in this regard is ongoing.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Tuesday hinted at raising the tariff “slightly” by up to 4 percent at both bulk and retail levels. He said, "Basically, the price of electricity will be adjusted at the wholesale level. However, it will not have much impact on Life Line customers."

Customers using up to 100 units are considered Lifeline customers.

Since January last year, the government has started fixing electricity prices unilaterally. Earlier, electricity prices were fixed under a process of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission. The government hiked electricity prices by 15.17 percent from January to March last year, increasing the average price from Tk 7.13 to Tk 8.25.