Bangladesh power firm likely to post $1.1B loss

State-run Bangladesh Power Development Board  is expected to post a loss of nearly $1.1 billion in the year ending June 2012.

According to a senior offical, this was caused by oil-fired power plants selling electricity below cost.

Bangladesh has increasingly relied on oil-fired power plants to ease an electricity and natural gas shortage in the Delta nation, but rising oil import costs have led to sharp losses, an official of the PDB who declined to be named told the news agency.

"We are concerned as the loss is increasing day by day, for which we have proposed to the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission to raise electricity prices," the official said.

BERC will meet soon to consider higher electricity prices, but is unlikely to agree to a PDB proposal to increase electricity rates by 15 per cent every six months, said Syed Yusuf Hossain, Chairman of BERC.

Bangladesh's PDB recovers only about half the cost of producing electricity from oil-powered generators, the official said, selling at Tk 2.8 per kilowatt hour against a cost of Tk 4.8.