Electricity price hike will worsen sufferings of commoners: Fakhrul

PBC NEWS DESK: Strongly condemning and protesting the government’s move to power price hike, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said that since the present government was not elected by people, it has taken an illogical decision to raise electricity prices.

“This decision to price hike of electricity is an anti-people and ill motivated. Since this government was not elected by people, it has decided to raise power prices when the sufferings of commoners mount,” he said in a statement on Friday (January 13, 2023).

“It’s a retail level shrewdness with people,” he said.Criticising power price hike again, Mirza Fakhrul said acute crisis has been going on in the country’s economy and in the lives of millions of commoners due to the government’s failure, corruption and wrong policy.

“The government has increased the power tariff at a time when people are facing a dire situation due to skyrocketing prices of all essentials including rice, pulses, edible oil and sugar. It has been done at a time when ordinary people’s living expenses are rising and many of them become unemployed everyday losing their work. As a result of the electricity price hike, irrigation cost in agriculture sector and production cost in manufacturing sector as well as retail level of consumers will go up eventually,” he said.

The BNP leader observed that people have been paying the prices of unabated corruption and irregularities in power sector. Power tariff has been raised as the generation cost has gone up due to rampant corruption, waste and mismanagement in power sector.

Mirza Fakhrul also demanded scrapping, what he said, the anti-people decision to raise power tariff immediately.