Energy Bangla

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Dhaka Friday,  Mar 29, 2024

System Gain In Gas Distribution: Customers Deceived

Mahbub Roni

The gas distribution companies are deceiving their customers as the customers are getting far less amount of gas than they are billed for. The distributor companies are like making extra money by only providing the bill reciept, but not the allocated gas.

State-run Petrobangla reported that, 13 percent of the total gas is used in the households while 17 percent in industries, 6 percent in fertilizer factories and 5.5 percent gas is used in CNG-run vehicles. As much as 41 percent of the total gas is used in power stations and 17 percent is used for captive power generation.

Residential and industrial consumers are deceived mostly while billed. The subscribers can be somewhat cheated in so many direct and indirect ways from gas distributors perspective. One of the most significant instances of direct deception is an inadequate or low pressure of gas at the consumer end. It mostly harms the industries, textiles and factories that depend on gas for production. Industries are capable of operating within a fixed, limited range of gas pressure. However, the Industry owners aren’t getting their expected and allocated gas pressure for most of the time. Volumetric meter, that is used in billing system is already outdated and has no mechanism for pressure based billing. The prevailing low pressure in industries is causing less production thus, raising production cost and ultimately causing grow slow.

Another instance lies in the household use of gas. The distributor companies have finalized the bill for a double burner estimating the highest usage of 92 cft (cubic feet) of gas per month. But unfortunately, only 42 cft gas is being supplied to a double burner at the household end. Here the distributor company Titas is already counting a double profit which is considered as system gain.

Seeking anonymity, at least two or more high officials from Titas and Petrobangla claimed that, at least 70 percent of the household subscribers are getting less gas than they are allotted for. According to the records of Titas, there are at least 20 lacs of legal household subscribers in the country.

As a matter of fact, the distribution companies are selling more gas than they are buying from Petrobangla. The excess bills are managed by this kind of deceiving system gain.

Mir Mosiur Rahman, managing director of Titas said that, some of the residential subscribers are not using much gas. On the other hand, industries are billed daily accounting a constant pressure rate though they don’t get their allocated pressure for 3-4 hours every day. “These are the reasons behind our system gain”, he added.

According to the yearly records of the distribution companies, Titas gained 1.82 percent, Bakhrabad gained 4 percent, Jalalabad gained 0.33 percent, Karnaphuli gained 4.29 percent and Paschimanchal gained 5 percent from their system in the fiscal year of 2015-16.

Prof Shamsul Alam, the Energy Advisor of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) addressing the issue said that, system gain is a name of deception and cheating. He alleged that, the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) and the high command of the government are reluctant on this issue though CAB repeatedly informed them solve the problem. The government has more interest in raising the price of gas rather solving these issues when all of the distribution companies are in profit, he added.

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