“That’s why we’ve opened up the pre-paid gas metre business for the private sector. We want them to either import it from abroad or manufacture it locally,” he said while addressing a dissemination meeting at the Petrobangla auditorium in the city.
The state minister said the government wants consumers to buy their own metres at their own choices from the open market and install those at their gas connections.
“But we’ll prefer smart metres so that consumers can recharge cards from home as they need to go to vendors for recharging pre-paid metres,” he said.
The Hydrocarbon unit and Energy and Mineral Resources Division jointly organised the meeting to make a presentation on the government’s policy on the involvement of the private sector in pre-paid gas metering business.
The meeting was informed that under an initiative taken by the government about 15 years back, about 300,000 pre-paid gas metres have so far been installed in certain areas of Dhaka by Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company and in some areas of Chattogram by Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company while the number of total gas consumers is 4.3 million across the country.
To expedite the metre installation process, the government has now decided to open up the sector for private entrepreneurs and issued a notification in this regard by formulating a specific policy, said an official of the Hydrocarbon unit who made a presentation on the issue.
Nasrul Hamid said still there are 4 million gas consumers who will need to install pre-paid or smart gas metres to pay their gas bills. “So, the private sector can come up for business.”
He said about 98 percent household gas connections have leakage which is very dangerous.
The state minister urged gas consumers to immediately repair their leakage in gas connections and install pre-paid or smart gas metres. “If the connection has any leakage, a pre-paid metre won’t work,” he said.
He said private companies that want to set up manufacturing plants should think about pre-paid metres of electricity, water and gas as all these utilities will require pre-paid metres in future.
Nasrul Hamid also said many private and state-owned companies set up manufacturing plants for pre-paid electricity metres.
Energy Secretary Abu Hena Ramatul Munim said the Petrobangla has set a standard to ensure quality of pre-paid or smart metres. A technical committee will work on it and certify whether metres comply with the standard or not.
Petrobangla Chairman Ruhul Amin also addressed the meeting.