Following widespread speculation, electricity prices have been increased across the country. The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) announced the new wholesale and retail power tariffs on Wednesday (June 3).

According to the new announcement, wholesale electricity prices have risen by 19.85%, while retail consumer tariffs have increased by an average of 16.68%.

Under the new rate structure, BERC has set the wholesale electricity price at 8.39 taka per unit, reflecting a 1.39 taka increase from the previous 7 taka. Meanwhile, retail tariffs have been raised by 1.52 taka, pushing the rate to 10.63 taka per unit from the earlier 9.11 taka.

Between May 3 and May 6, power generation, transmission, and distribution companies filed applications with BERC seeking hikes in wholesale, retail, and transmission charges. In their proposals, PDB requested a hike of up to 85 poisha per unit, REB 1.77 taka, DPDC 1.54 taka, DESCO 1.98 taka, WZPDCL 1.39 taka, and NESCO 2.05 taka.

However, during BERC's public hearings on May 20 and 21, political leaders, consumer rights activists, businesses, and industrialists strongly opposed the price hike proposals. They argued that the burden of long-standing corruption, mismanagement, flawed planning, and systemic wastage was being unfairly shifted onto ordinary consumers.

Following the hearings, the BERC technical committee recommended that electricity prices for distribution companies could be increased by an average of 1.25 taka per unit.

Power tariffs were last increased via an executive order in February 2024, which raised the average wholesale electricity price from 6.70 taka to 7.04 taka per unit.