Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company on Tuesday came up with a proposal for raising natural gas price by 40 per cent on an average following a verbal order from the government to set an asset value of Tk 25 for one thousand cubic feet of gas.
Titas managing director, Nowshad Islam, at a hearing on its proposal, did not mention the name of the person who issued the verbal order that prompted all the gas companies to submit their proposals for raising the prices of methane gas.
The energy division on February 23, 2014 issued a letter asking Petrobangla, the parent organisation of the gas distribution companies, to consider Tk 25 as an asset value of a thousand cubic-feet of natural gas.
Had the asset value for gas was not set, the officials would not have proposed for the price enhancement, according to Titas officials.
In the hearing, Consumer Association of Bangladesh’s energy adviser, Shamsul Alam, said, that the gas companies’ proposal for increasing the price of natural gas had no logical ground as they came up with a verbal order for setting up the asset value.
The BERC technical committee in the hearing reported that there was no need to increase the gas price even considering Tk 25 as asset value of 1,000 cubic feet of gas.
The committee said that Titas would make a profit of Tk 312.72 crore a year with the current tariff.
The committee, however, reported the commission that the Paschimanchal Gas Company Ltd would need a 5.59 per cent hike on an average to operate at breakeven against its proposal for raising the prices by 40 per cent.
Source: New Age