The Bangladesh government has increased the charges and margins at different levels of the gas industry, from production to distribution, by executive orders.
These changes were announced in separate orders from the Operations Division of the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources on Thursday.
Until now, these charges were set by the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission through public hearings.
Although these charges are effective from this month, no effect will be seen at the consumer level. Because, despite changing the charges and margins, the order has kept the price of gas at the retail level unchanged.
According to the new order, the wellhead margin of Bangladesh gas field has been fixed at Tk 1 per cubic metre, the wellhead margin of BAPEX at Tk 4 per cubic metre and the margin of Sylhet gas field at Tk 1 per cubic metre. However, the previous margin is not known.
Gas transmission and distribution charges have been increased too. The transmission charges of gas transmission companies have been increased from Tk 0.47 to Tk 1.02 per cubic metre.
Another order increased the distribution charges from Tk 0.07 to Tk 0.11 per cubic metre depending on the company.
Sheikh Mohammad Belayat Hossain, an official of the Operation-1 branch of the Energy and Mineral Resources Department, signed the orders.
When contacted, he said it is an internal matter of the companies and has nothing to do with the customer gas prices.
The ministry’s Deputy Chief Information Officer, Mir Mohammad Aslam Uddin, told bdnews24.com that the distribution charge increased will be kept for the respective companies from the money received from gas sales to the customers. Apart from this, the transmission charges for GTCL and some charges for other related companies have been increased.
These companies will take from each other internally so there will be no impact at the customer level.
In the new order, the distribution charge has been increased from Tk 0.16 to Tk 0.26 for the Western Gas Company, from Tk 0.15 to 0.24 for the Sundarban Gas Company, from Tk 0.13 to Tk 0.21 for Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company, from Tk 0.19 to Tk 0.30 for the Bakhrabad Gas Distribution Company, from Tk 0.26 to Tk 0.37 for Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company, and from Tk 0.11 to Tk 0.18 for the Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution System Limited.