Despite slow progress in some ongoing prepaid meter installation schemes, electricity distributors are going to start three bigger projects, officials said on Friday.
In addition, the electricity consumers, who installed pre-paid meters, are being harassed for the lack of smooth payment systems in their respective zones.
Power division officials said the Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), Dhaka Electric Supply Company (DESCO) and Northern Electricity Supply Company Limited (NESCO) have taken up three big projects.
The three state-owned electricity supply companies in Dhaka and northern districts will install 1.55 million pre-paid meters replacing the existing ones investing a total of Tk 12.63 billion.
The three projects are waiting for the approval from the Planning Commission (PC) before the installation work starts.
The government's move to check electricity theft and boost revenue income has so far failed to make any headway as the power distributors show their reluctance allegedly to install the prepaid meter in time, officials said.
According to officials, although the government had approved at least six projects at a cost of Tk 11.47 billion during the last nine years, the power distributors have failed to complete most of them.
When asked, a senior power division official said most of the distributing agencies are reluctant to install the prepaid meters.
"If the prepaid meters are set up, the system loss will be checked and the government's revenue earnings will go up significantly," he said.
These meters will also help reduce tempering of meters or stealing of electricity bypassing the meters by the customers in connivance with some corrupt employees, the official added.
According to the fresh proposals, the DPDC has proposed implementing Tk 6.58 billion project to install 0.85 million smart prepaid meters.
The DPDC has so far failed to complete the ongoing Tk 1.73 billion pre-paid metering project for six NOCS division under DPDC in 2013.
The NESCO has sought the approval for a Tk 4.15 billion project to install 0.50 million smart prepaid meters in its zones in northern districts.
The DESCO has also sought the approval for a Tk 1.90 billion project to install some 0.20 million prepaid meters in its zones in Dhaka city.
The prepaid meters will be installed for the electricity consumers. The consumers would pay bill before their electricity utilisation if the meters are installed.
Meanwhile, the DPDC and Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) had taken two projects in 2013 for installing pre-paid meters, the progress of which is poor.
The BPDB took another project in 2009 for installing the meters in southern Chittagong areas, which had completed recently after nearly nine years, they said.
The Rural Electrification Board (REB) has taken up a project to install 1.15 million prepaid meters in its Dhaka Division in 2015 at a cost of Tk 4.36 billion.
The project has not completed in four years, officials said.
The West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited and the DPDC have recently completed two separate prepaid metering projects after struggling for several years.
The BPDB had undertook the Tk 132.49 billion "Prepaid metering for distribution Cumilla and Mymansingh" project in July 2013 with the financial support from the German donor agency KFW, which has not been completed yet.
Insiders said the consumers who installed the prepaid meters cannot pay the bill in time as the pay points for the prepaid meters are not available in their areas.
"When we fail to pay money due to the absence of the pay points, the electricity is automatically disconnected," Hafizur Rahman, a consumer in Chittagong, told the FE.
A commission official said they had monitored some prepaid metering projects whose progress is so slow that the implementing agencies even failed to spend 1.0 per cent on their initial three to four years of implementation period.
Heads of two projects under the BPDB and the DPDC could not be reached for comments.
