Dhaka, May 21 -- Stakeholders at a public hearing have opposed proposals to increase retail electricity prices, urging the state regulator to focus on trimming institutional costs and rooting out corruption rather than squeezing consumers further.

On the final day of the two-day public consultation organised by the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) at the Krishibid Institution Bangladesh, power sector experts, left-leaning politicians, and business leaders argued that the energy sector should be treated as a cost-to-cost public service rather than a profit-making enterprise.

They demanded that the financial fallout from capacity charges, high system losses, and inflated project costs no longer be passed on to everyday citiz...