Muhammad Fauzul Kabir Khan, advisor to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, said that the subsidy of Tk 3,000 per capita is being paid for electricity and fuel. He blamed this on the lack of competition in the electricity sector and the monopoly of a few companies.
He said, “Due to the lack of competition in the electricity sector and the monopoly of a few companies, we have to buy fuel at high prices. About 52 thousand crore taka has to be subsidized in the fuel sector annually. That is, this rate of subsidy per capita of the country’s people is about 3 thousand taka.”
He made these remarks at a seminar on affordable prices and uninterrupted supply of fuel organized by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday (December 7).
The energy advisor said that even though consumers pay an average price of 8.55 taka per unit of electricity, the government buys it for 12 to 25 taka. Even though the cost of importing LNG is 70 taka per unit, it is being supplied to the industrial sector at a rate of 30 taka. The government has to subsidize this difference in price.
He also said, “Due to the lack of competition in the power sector and the monopoly of a few companies, we are having to buy fuel at a higher price. We need 4,000 MMCFT of gas, we have less than 3,000. We will have to increase our gas extraction activities to meet the shortage. There are about 70 CMFFT of gas reserves in Bhola, for which open tenders will be invited. From now on, no tenders will be invited in the power and energy sectors without open competition.”