Meet on fuel & gas tariffs today
The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) will sit with the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources today to fix the tariffs on fuel oil, power and gas transmission charges at the bulk and consumer levels.
BERC secretary Monwar Hossain Akand told The Independent that the Prime Ministers energy adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, state minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid, the PMs principal secretary, Abul Kalam Azad, Power Division secretary Monowarul Islam, and Energy Division secretary Abu Bakar Siddique will attend the meeting.
BERC chairman AR Khan and other members are also expected to attend the discussion, he said.
Following separate proposals from six electricity and seven gas companies to increase prices, BERC had organised public hearings on power tariff hike during January 22-25 and gas tariff hike during February 2-5. The energy regulator, however, could not comply with its governing law by failing to decide on hiking power and gas prices within 90 days of the public hearings.
BERC commissioner Dr Salim Mahmud said the regulator will sit with the ministry to talk about fixing prices of gas and electricity. Fixing fuel cost is not being done by BERC but rather by an executive order, he added.
When asked about finance minister AMA Muhits recent comment on lowering fuel prices in the domestic market, Mahmud said the commission will discuss about that in the meeting.
