Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has raised the power tariff on a weighted average by 5.3 percent at retail and 8.4 percent at wholesale levels.

The new tariff will come into effect on March 1, said newly-appointed BERC Chairman Md Abdul Jalil while announcing the decision on Thursday at the Commission’s auditorium. Four other members of the commission were present.

The retail power tariff has been increased from Tk 6.77 to Tk 7.13 per unit (each kilowatt-hour) and Tk 4.77 to Tk 5.17 at wholesale level.

The BERC also raised the wheeling charge in power transmission by a weighted average of 5.3 percent to Tk 0.29 per kilowatt hour to Tk 0.27.

The retail price is applicable for common consumers while the bulk price is applicable for power distribution companies.

Earlier, both the retail and bulk power tariffs were raised in November 2017 with effect from December 1 of the same year.

After a two-year break, the BERC held public hearing on power tariff hike proposal in December last year and came out with its decision within 90 days as per rule responding to the appeal of the state-owned power generation, transmission and distribution companies.

As per the BERC announcement, from March 1, each retail consumer using up to 50 units of electricity will pay Tk 3.75 per unit as bill while the users of up to 57 units will pay Tk 4.19 per unit.

Bill has to be paid Tk 5.72 per unit for consumers of 76-200 units, Tk 6 per unit for 201-300 units, Tk 6.34 per unit for 301-400 units, Tk 9.94 per unit for 401-600 units and Tk 11.46 per unit for consumers of over 600 units.

The agriculture water pump users will pay Tk 4.16 per unit while small industries will pay Tk 8.53 per unit as flats rate, Tk 7.68 per unit for off peak hour, Tk 10.24 per unit for peak-hour use.

The consumers will pay Tk 12 per unit for the construction period of any building structure while educational, religious institution and hospital will pay Tk 6.02 per unit. These rates are applicable for the lines having single phase of 230-400 volts.

However, the residential consumers using 11 kV lines will pay Tk 8.40 per unit as flat rate, Tk 7.56 per unit for off- peak hour and Tk 10.50 for peak-hour use.

The same category commercial and office consumers will pay Tk 9.12 per unit as flat rate, Tk 8.21 for off- peak hour, and Tk 11.40 for peak-hour use.

The industrial 11 kV MT lines consumers will pay Tk 8.55 per unit as flat rate, Tk 7.70 per unit for off-peak hour and Tk 10.69 for peak hours.

Replying to a question on the possible impact of new rates of electricity on the consumers, the BERC chairman claimed that it will have very little impact on consumers as the lifeline consumers using up to 50 units will pay a monthly bill of Tk 220-224 instead of previous bill of Tk 215-219 while a medium industry will pay a monthly bill of about Tk 354,000 against previous Tk 326,000 while new tariff will come into effect.