"We have to increase the tariff of electricity in the urban areas rationalising it with the rural area's rate as the rural people have now to pay higher than the urban people," the minister told a seminar. He, however, did not mention the date of the execution of the revised tariff rate.

Talukder said the rate hike is also important to avert huge loss of the Power Development Board (PDB) to revitalise it in its activities ranging from power generation to distribution.

Presently, the PDB has to incur a loss of nearly Tk 700 crore annually due to supply of electricity at rates lower than production costs. The PDB sells per unit of electricity at Tk 2.17 while its generation costs Tk 2.42 per unit.

Mir Nasir Hossain, president, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), BD Rahmatullah, director general of Power Cell, among others, spoke at the seminar on 'Efficiency Improvement in Energy Consumption' organised by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) and chaired by DCCI President MA Momen at its conference room.

The speakers urged the government to supply electricity at lower rate to increase competitiveness of products.

They also stressed the need for demand side management to reduce the power shortfall, as it takes huge investment and long time to establish supply side capacity.

Through efficient power management it is possible to save up to 100 MW of power, Ijaz Hossain of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) mentioned in his keynote paper.