'Govt is planning hike in gas price, installation of prepaid connections'

State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid on Sunday said the government is planning to hike the price of gas and update all old gas pipelines with prepaid connections in the capital.

The minister came up with the remark while talking to journalists at his Secretariat office in the capital.

He said: "We are planning an updated gas supply system with prepaid connections and increased gas price. A proposal has already been submitted to Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (Berc) in this regard."

“The commission is yet to decide on hiking gas price” he said.

The junior minister said Tk 14,000 crore subsidy needs to be added if the government does not increase gas price.

"The proposal to double the gas price has been placed considering the current situation. We have already paid Tk 14,000 crore for importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) and we have to arrange Tk14,000 more to keep the gas price stable,” he added.

BERC started the public hearing on March 11 on the proposals placed by distribution companies Titas, Bakhrabad, Jalalabad, Pashchimanchal, Karnaphuli, and Sundarban for the price hike.

Titas and Sundarban have demanded 208% price hike for power plants, 211% for fertiliser companies, 96% for captive power plants, 132% for industries, 41% for commercial entities, and 50% for CNG-run vehicles.

They are also demanding 80% hike in the monthly gas bill for both single-burner and double-burner cooking stoves.
For Single burner, they proposed a hike from Tk 750 to Tk 1,350 and for double-burner from Tk 800 to Tk 1,440.

Source: dailysun