Experts, academics and activists have denounced the government move to change electricity tariff more than once every financial year, terming it an 'anti people move.'

While the consumers of all six utility agencies are facing serious problem with the 'over billing', 'extra billing' issue during Covid -19 period, the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources is not sitting idle, they placed 'The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2020' in Parliament on Tuesday to empower the BERC to make change in tariff multiple times every financial year, but failed to address the billing issue in the last two months.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid placed the Bill in Parliament and it was sent to the respective parliamentary standing committee for further scrutiny, the committee was asked to submit its report within 30 days.

"This move is not in favour of the consumers' interest. We have enjoyed tariff cut only two times, but unfortunately we experienced tariff hike six times in the last 10 years. It is against people's aspiration as it will leave no room for public to say anything against the pricing and cut the BERC's authority to practice 'checks and balances' between the consumers, produces and the government," Golam Rahman, the former BERC Chairman told The Daily Observer on Tuesday.

Currently, the law permits BERC to make change in tariff once every financial year.

"Energy prices change in the international market continuously and the government needs to adjust the prices in the local market accordingly. And that's why the amendment was proposed," State Minister Nasrul Hamid said when presenting the Bill.

"Globally, Energy price is a quite stable item, as there is only one item in power production which is a 'variable'; one that is fuel price, otherwise all prices are static," Professor M Tamim, former adviser to the caretaker government, said.

Coal, Gas, liquid fuel are major fuel here, my observation is, the government is trying to gain a free hand over the pricing issue, as they (govt) are more dependent on fuel- based power plant. They need some sort of liberty here as they are paying huge capacity charge to the independent power producers, he added.

"During the budget speech, the Finance Minister said they want to curb dependency on fuel- based power plants to cut cost, then why the ministry is so eager to enact such a Law which is not consumer- friendly and would create a huge row here," Dr Tamim wondered.
He , however, said change in price can be allowed more than once under exceptional situation which must be fairly defined.

Unconditional authority of BERC will not protect the consumers and they will have no recourse to seek justice.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet on December 30, 2019 in principle cleared the draft of the BERC (amendment) Act 2019, with the provision of changing the tariff of gas and power more than once every fiscal year.

Prof Dr M Shamsul Alam, energy adviser to Consumers' Association of Bangladesh (CAB), said government should stop irregularities and anomalies in the energy and power sector. The rising expenditure of rental-quick rental was not under the government's control.

"The government kept failing to stop that. It is also failing to stop the anomalies in the sector," he said, and observed that the new law will allow corruption to reign supreme and deficit to expand further.
CAB earlier showed that only by checking graft, the government can save Tk 12,000 crore from the gas sector, Tk 10,000 crore from power sector, and Tk 1,000 crore from coal sector.

Petrobangla, the state owned Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation sought Tk 10,380 crore subsidy from the government to be able to continue the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Power Development Board paid Tk 15,000 crore to power plants for capacity payment last year, and the amount may shoot up to Tk 20,000 crore this year, official said.