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Abstract
The electricity regulatory framework in Bangladesh is in the process of reforms since its inception. The salient features of the reforms include converting the electricity sector from public service to private service, shifting bureaucratic governance to corporate governance, reducing command and control regulation and establishing a regulatory commission. The aim of this paper is to review the existing laws and regulations in relation to electricity regulation in Bangladesh with a view to assessing the efficiency of the electricity regulatory framework. The findings suggest that electricity regulations need to be stable and predictable, and regulatory institutions should be coordinated, independent and accountable.
Notes
1 Article 16 of the Constitution of Bangladesh: ‘The State shall adopt effective measures to bring about a radical transformation in the rural areas through the promotion of an agricultural revolution, the provision of rural electrification, the development of cottage and other industries, and the improvement of education, communications and public health, in those areas, so as progressively to remove the disparity in the standards of living between the urban and the rural areas’.
2 Bangladesh Power Development Board was constituted under section 3 of the Bangladesh Water and Power Development Boards Order, 1972 entrusting the responsibilities, inter alia, to frame schemes for generation, transmission and distribution of power (subsequently, the words ‘Water and’ were omitted by section 27 of the Bangladesh Water Development Board Act, 2000).
3 Preamble to the Electricity Rules, 1937.
4 Preamble to the Electricity Act, 2018.
5 Section 21A of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority Act, 1990 was inserted by the provisions of section 2 of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (Amendment) Act, 2009.
6 Preamble to the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act, 2010.
7 Preamble to the Sustainable Renewable Energy Development Authority Act, 2012.
8 Biswajit Debnath Kumar and Monjur Mourshed, ‘Corruption Significantly Increases, the Capital Cost of Power plants in Developing Contexts’ (Frontiers in Energy Research, 08 March 2018) https://orca.cf.ac.uk/109352/1/Manuscript.pdf accessed 31 January 2020.
9 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Plant Wise Generation Statistics, 2017–18 https://bbs.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/bbs.portal.gov.bd/page/86b66335_4fa7_4143_a034_9abe3c537553/2020-05-15-16-26-4a0ccc00c3cb4d0f78f0f405d8547e70.pdf accessed 30 January 2020.
10 Rule 4(ix) read with rule 4(ii) of the Rules of Business, 1996.
11 Article 16A of the Allocation of Business among the Different Ministries and Divisions (Schedule I of the Rules of Business, 1996).
12 Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Power Cell, https://mpemr.gov.bd/power/details/36 accessed 24 June 2018.
13 Section 24 of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Act, 2003.
14 Article 16A of the Allocation of Business among the Different Ministries and Divisions (Schedule I of the Rules of Business, 1996).
15 Preamble of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Act, 2003.
16 Section 22 of the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission Act, 2003.
17 Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission, Acts & Rules, http://www.berc.org.bd/site/view/legislative_information/Regulations accessed 24 June 2018.
18 Preamble read with section 71 of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Regulatory Act, 2012.
19 Rule of the Electricity Rules, 1937.
20 Section 6 of the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority Act, 2012.
21 Section 27 of the Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority Act, 2012.
22 Section 10(2) of the Bangladesh Power Development Boards Order, 1972.
23 Bangladesh Power Development Board, http://www.bpdb.gov.bd/bpdb accessed 24 June 2018.
24 Preamble to the Rural Electrification Board Ordinance, 1977 (Repealed).
25 Preamble to the Rural Electrification Board Act, 2013.
26 Section 21A of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority Act, 1990 was inserted by the provisions of section 2 of the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (Amendment) Act, 2009.
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33 Section 3 of the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act, 2010.
34 Section 4 of the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act, 2010.
35 Section 9 of the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act, 2010 provides that ‘No question regarding the validity of any act done or purported to be done, any action taken or any order issued or direction given under this Act shall be raised in any court’.
36 Section 10 of the Quick Enhancement of Electricity and Energy Supply (Special Provisions) Act, 2010.
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