Power tariff hiked by 8.50 percent at retail level

The government has issued the gazette notification increasing power tariff by 8.50 percent at retail level.

The announcement came on Thursday night soon after the announcement of bulk tariff hike by 5 percent.

As per the gazette notification, at the retail level, per unit of electricity (each kilowatt hour) will increase by an average Tk 0.70 (8.50%) to Tk 8.95 per unit from existing Tk 8.25.

On the other hand, the life line subscribers will see a hike by Tk 0.28 per unit from Tk 4.35 to Tk 4.63.

The new tariff will be effective retroactively from February 1.

There are 1.65 crore “life line consumers”, said the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources giving a clarification to the latest tariff hike for thd retail consumers.

Earlier, the government announced the new power tariff for bulk consumers raising it by 5 percent from existing Tk 6.70 per unit to Tk 7.04 meaning a rise of Tk 0.34 per unit (each kilowatt hour) with effect from February 1.

The bulk consumers are mainly the distribution entities and large industries that receive electricity at 33 kV, 132 kV and 230 kV transmission lines directly from the single buyer and principal organization in the power sector, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB).

There are six distribution entities—Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC), Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (Desco), Northern Electricity Supply Company PLS (Nesco), West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZPDCL) and also BPDB, which is itself involved in power distribution.

As per a gazette notification, dated February 29, the distribution entities will purchase electricity from BPDB at Tk 8.44 per unit electricity at 230 kV, Tk 8.47 at 132 kV and Tk 7.62 at 33 kV level.

Besides, a separate gazette notification was also issued raising the transmission charge as well for the entities.