The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday increased the retail power tariff by Tk 1.52 per kilowatt-hour.

The new retail power tariff, which takes effect from the current month, stands at Tk 10.63 per kWh, up from Tk 9.11 per kWh.

The announcement was made by BERC chairman Jalal Ahmed at his office in the capital.

The BERC also increased the bulk power tariff to Tk 8.39 per kWh from Tk 7.00 per kWh.

Furthermore, the wheeling charge for the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh PLC has been increased to Tk 0.3886 per kWh from Tk 0.3135 per kWh.

The last time power tariffs were hiked was in 2024.

Earlier on 21 May, the BERC concluded a two-day hearing on the retail and bulk power price hikes amid widespread criticism from rights groups, academics, business representatives, and politicians.

Critics and rights groups argued that the proposals for power tariff hikes are unacceptable, as consumers are already paying heavily for an excess power generation capacity of at least 7,600 megawatts through Tk 42,000 crore in capacity charge payments.