Finally, electricity prices are not increasing.

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has decided to keep the wholesale electricity price unchanged. BERC Chairman Abdul Jalil made the announcement at a virtual press conference at 11:30 am on Thursday (October 13). The results were announced in the wake of a public hearing on the proposed price increase by power companies.

Earlier, on May 18, the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) held a public hearing on the companies' proposed wholesale electricity prices. According to the BERC Act, there is a legal obligation to issue an order within 90 working days after the public hearing. Accordingly, the results were announced today.

Also present at the press conference were members Maqbul-e Elahi, Bazlur Rahman, Abu Faruk, BERC Secretary Khalilur Rahman, and others.

Earlier, in a public hearing, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) requested to increase the current price of Tk 5.17 per unit by 66 percent to Tk 8.58. This proposal of BPDB is considering the previous price of gas of Tk 4.45 per unit. After that proposal, the price of gas per unit has increased by 57 paisa. The BERC Technical Committee gave its opinion to increase the price to Tk 8.16 without subsidy. There is no precedent in the past to propose such a large price increase. Later, after scrutiny, BERC prepared a proposal for a price increase of 19.92 percent. However, BERC has recently withdrawn from it due to various reasons including load shedding.

Before this, the last time electricity prices were increased was on February 27, 2020. Electricity prices were increased at three levels - wholesale, retail and transmission. At the general consumer level (retail), the price of electricity per unit was increased by an average of 5.3 percent to 7 taka 13 paisa.

Which was previously 6 taka 77 paisa per unit. The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) officially announced this in the afternoon that day. The wholesale electricity price per unit was increased by an average of 8.4 percent to 5 taka 17 paisa. Which was previously 4 taka 77 paisa per unit. In addition, the electricity transmission price or wheeling charge was increased by 5.3 percent from 0.2787 taka per unit to 0.2934 taka. BERC made it effective from March 1.