Checking pilferage and wastage of power is crucial
The government must stop stealing of electricity and gas for the overall national development. If pilferage can be minimised, then the government will not have to increase the electricity and gas prices often causing dissatisfaction to the consumers. This will also make industrial operation cost-effective. The extent of illegal use of power is huge. According to a report of this newspaper yesterday, the special taskforce of Dhaka Power Distribution Company had seized a fake meter with 83,000 units of electricity consumed without any billing at Jurain in the capital. The taskforce of DPDC also detected a massive forgery in issuance of demand note for electric connection and installation of meter.
Now one can very well imagine the limitation of this task force regarding manpower. If a combing operation is made throughout the country, thousands of such cases of forgery would be detected. On the other hand, it would be nave to think that consumers are using electricity illegally without having backdoor dealing with the relevant people of the sector. In the recent Jurain case, the five fake demand notes were found with signatures of the DPDC and bank officials.
Therefore, more power generation---the present government has given a thrust in this regard---in the ultimate analysis would not be able to bring the benefits both at the individual consumers level as well as at the national level. Not only is electricity stolen, a considerable amount is also wasted due to misuse. It is alleged that the relevant people do not bother about maintaining the timing of switching on and off the government sponsored lighting systems in the urban areas.
For making a country a middle income one within the shortest possible time, it is necessary to produce more power and ensure its effective utilisation. As far as gas is concerned, our resources are limited. New gas fields are hardly discovered and the existing sources are fast depleting. Against this backdrop, the judicious use of gas is very vital.
In this regard, the earlier the government reverts back to use of fuel oil in the CNG-driven auto-rickshaws the better. The price of crude oil on the international market has greatly decreased and there is little chance it would increase anytime soon. In fact, it is predicted that price of oil on the international market would never be within the range it was several years ago, because of US oil reserves. Besides reverting to oil for running three wheelers, minimising household wastage of gas would also contribute to lengthening use of our limited
gas resources.
