Within a month of gas price hike, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd (TGTDCL) has increased the monthly rent of household prepaid gas meter by Tk 40, which will be an extra burden for consumers.
The household gas meter monthly rent will now be Tk 100 from the previous rate of Tk 60. The decision was taken without informing the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC). The decision on the rate hike will be effective from this month.
As a result, the gas distribution company will collect an additional Tk 1.28 crore per month from 3.2 million prepaid gas meter consumers.
Energy experts said that TGTDCL does not have the right to raise the monthly gas meter rent other than collecting only the gas bill. Many are speculating that the meter rent has increased to discourage consumers on prepaid meters. However, the official of the company claimed that the meter rent has been fixed according to rules.
Earlier, BERC had raised the price of gas tariff by 22.78 per cent on an average for all retail consumers, which has was effective from June 1 last despite opposition from general users and trade bodies.
According to the new gas tariff, the price of gas per unit (cubic meter) had raised to Tk 18 from Tk 12.6 for household consumers with prepaid meter connections.
Mohammad Maqbul-E-Elahi Chowdhury, Member (Gas) of BERC said, “We heard that the distribution companies have increased the gas meter rent from Tk 60 to Tk 100. Sadly, we were not officially informed about the matter.”
Asked, Engineer Saleh Ahmed, Project Director of Installation of Pre-paid Gas Meter for TGTDCL, told Bangladesh Post that BERC fixed the gas tariff. However, there is no relation to fix the rent of the gas pre-paid meter. Titas Board has fixed it in accordance to an official gazette of 2014.
According to a Titas official, a Japanese company supplied the meters, each priced at Tk 14,000. The estimated lifetime of the meters is around 20 years. As such, the rent was fixed at Tk. 60 per month. Now, Titas wants to collect the money within 13 years. To this end, the rent has been fixed at Tk 100 per month.
Professor M Shamsul Alam, Energy Adviser of Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB), said that meter rent was included in the cost of gas distribution. It is illegal to collect meter rent. Therefore, it is a punishable offense to increase it arbitrarily.
He also said that if action is not taken against such irregularities in the gas distribution sector, the risk of energy security would increase.
The government decided to install pre-paid meters to stop theft, waste and illegal use, along with establishing discipline and good governance in the gas sector. But the gas distribution companies are doing this very slowly.
According to experts, if the gas distribution companies could ensure prepaid meters for all domestic gas users, around 40 percent less gas would be burnt as consumers would be frugal.
Since it was not implemented, the country loses a huge quantity of gas, mainly through the burning of excess gas unnecessarily. Secondly, gas is being stolen through illegal connections.
Due to the slow pace of the meter installation, the consumers are paying extra bills using less amount of gas. For this, Titas is taking around taka 2.5 thousand crore extra from the consumers every year. One expert says that a whole amount is being stolen.
However, gas prepaid meter installation work of six state-owned gas distribution companies is going on at a snail’s pace. The total number of residential consumers under the six gas distribution companies is currently around 43 lakh. Among them, around four lakh consumers only have prepaid meters.
