Editorial
Power tariff hike
Avoid ad hocism
Already battered by endless cycles of load-shedding and outages, the general as well as commercial consumers of electricity are now faced with another predicament--a fresh hike in power tariff. As announced by the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC), the new raise will be made in order to adjust the tariff rate with the high price of imported furnace oil as well as to reduce system loss and improve efficiency of power management. It is however not clear how increased tariff will address the problem of system loss, or distribution inefficiency as long as the pilferage of power rooted in systemic corruption as well as bureaucratic sloth continues to plague the power administration.
Equally inconceivable is the move on the part of the BERC to make the new tariff structure public in an ad hoc fashion by holding a meeting only with the power distribution companies keeping the end users in the dark, though the actual burden of the five per cent increase in power tariff will have to borne by the general consumers. And keeping in mind the knock-on effect of any increase in power tariff on the prices of goods and services, the assumption that the new tariff hike at five per cent is within the purchasing power of the public also hardly stands to reason. On top of this, one is also to consider the added anxiety of the general users in August next when, as further noted by BERC, the bulk users will have to go through a second bout of hike in the power tariff over the already existing one.
Such ad hoc-ish approach to raise power tariff has not only compromised BERC's integrity as a statutory authority, it has also impacted public interest negatively. Worse still, to all intents and purposes, the enhanced power price is neither going to neither improve quality of service from the distribution companies, nor address the prevailing scourge of erratic power supply. In the circumstances, it is therefore, hoped that the authorities will take the opinion of end users before going for such hike in power tariff in the future.
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