Decision to stall power price hike may hinder donor funding
Staff Correspondent
The government's decision to stall its earlier decision on electricity price hike might push the future of donor funding in the energy sector into uncertainty, sources said.The immediate past BNP-led coalition government had decided to up the electricity price from January 1 under donor pressure to reduce losses. According to the decision, the government decided to hike price of each unit of electricity by five percent for a user, who consumes over 100 units. But the government on Monday announced the decision to stall the price hike. A power division source said the decision might affect the negotiation between the government and an Asian Development Bank mission this month on realisation of US$500 million soft loans for the power sector. According to the source, the donors gave pressure to the government to lift electricity charge as the power division was incurring Tk 600 crore losses due to higher electricity consumption. There was a fear that the loss amount may cross Tk 1000 crore, the source also added. Power Secretary ANH Akhtar Hossain admitted the fact while talking to The Daily Star last night. However, he said the government neither stalled the price hike nor cancelled it. "In the present political environment, price hike could emerge as a political issue. So the decision was taken as per the advice of the chief adviser."
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