Privatizing the power distribution system could cause long-term hardship for ordinary consumers, former National Citizens’ Party (NCP) leader Tasnim Zara has warned. Without alternative suppliers, consumers would have no choice and ensuring fair pricing and quality service would become difficult, she said.
Zara made the remarks in a verified Facebook post on Thursday night (August 13).
In the post, Zara said the government is planning to hand over power distribution to private companies. This would mean that the wiring in any given area, the meters installed in homes and the monthly bills would all come under private company control.
“When buying rice and lentils, if a shopkeeper charges too much, the buyer can go to the next shop. Because alternatives exist, the shopkeeper also feels pressure to keep prices fair. But with electricity, there will be no such option,” Zara wrote.
She explained that four companies would not erect four sets of poles and wires to supply electricity in one area. Consumers would therefore have no opportunity to compare prices and services across different companies.
Whichever company owns the wiring in a given area will be the sole supplier that consumers must buy from, she noted.
To illustrate, Zara used a grocery-store analogy. If only one shop were permitted in a neighborhood with no possibility of a second, that shopkeeper would have no incentive to lower prices, she argued.
However, she acknowledged that power distribution is in private hands in many countries around the world.
In those countries, strong regulatory bodies exist, she said. Businesses cannot act as they please, and the regulators independently protect the public interest.
She cited Britain as an example, noting that if a storm disrupts power lines and service is not restored within a set period, the distribution company must pay consumers a fixed amount of compensation without requiring a separate application.
Zara also questioned the independence of Bangladesh’s regulatory bodies. Citing the U.S. Federal Reserve, she noted that President Trump publicly demanded interest rate cuts for years, openly criticized his own appointee as governor and even threatened to fire him — yet the Fed did not yield.
Turning to Bangladesh, Zara asked whether any domestic regulator had ever defied the government. Such examples are hard to recall, she said, adding that the opposite comes more readily to mind.
Keeping power distribution in government hands makes it comparatively easier to assign accountability, she said. If there are outages or abnormally high bills, the government bears responsibility and faces the threat of losing elections.
With private companies, however, that accountability mechanism could also disappear, she argued, since private firms are not elected by the public and cannot be removed by vote.
Without market competition, consumers would have no option to switch to another company’s service, she added.
At the end of her post, Zara raised the issue of long-term contracts. Such agreements typically run 20 to 25 years, she said, and once signed, they are difficult to change even when governments change. The consequences of decisions made by the current government could burden the public for generations, she warned.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report