The primary job of the commission is to devise effective measures to protect consumer rights on essential utilities like electricity, gas and petroleum.

The e-management includes online systems where a consumer can directly post a complaint and the top office of the regulatory body can monitor what his officials are doing to deal with the complaints.

"One major criterion of the BERC officials will be whether they have proper IT knowledge to handle the matters," Acting Chairman of the Commission Md Mosharraf Hossain said in his first public appearance since his appointment.

He was addressing a 'meet the press' programme on "Bangladesh Energy Sector and Energy Regulatory Commission". Forum for Energy Reporters, Bangladesh (FERB) arranged the meet, which was also addressed by BERC Member Md Showkat Hossain.

Mosharraf said that the commission would have a competitive monitoring cell and ensure effective complaint centres in energy utilities. "The energy utilities will have to make weekly report on receipt of complaints and progress of their disposal."

Still, the acting chairman considers that the country needs a pragmatic law to protect the consumers' rights, which he said would be one of the major tasks of the BERC alongside ensuring a competitive market, as in case of other countries.

Showkat Hossain said the BERC would ensure the pricing through a transparent way where there will also be downward revisions. "We'll fix the tariffs after reviewing the real costs in generation, transmission and distribution as well as universally accepted profit margins."

The BERC Act was passed by parliament on March 13, 2003 and it was made effective from April 27, 2004.

The commission has begun initial work and now under process of developing the institution. It will be fully functional after having operational rules and regulations, now in the making.

Apart from executing a market-based pricing regime, the BERC is assigned to ensure quality services by controlling licensing and "energy audit" in gas, power and petroleum sectors. The only job out of its jurisdiction is gas exploration and production.