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Pre-paid gas

8 October 2005, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Md Shahriar Parvez Banani
8 October 2005, 18:00 PM
Gas is a valuable asset of Bangladesh, which will of course not be available on a permanent basis. In our neighbouring country (India) gas is not available in the desired quantity, they have to use gas cylinder for domestic consumption. But in our country we use gas as much as we want to. We think we have a surfeit of gas. For this reason, people save a matchstick and keep the burner on round the clock. Recently, Titas Gas launched the pre-paid gas meter in Banani area in the city. It is a very good step to prevent gas misuse. They have two types of cards-- double burners (Tk 400) and for more than double burners you have to pay Tk 600. In this system consumers pay no monthly fixed charge. The consumers will decide how much they will spend ( no use no pay).

It is a good system, but it has some problems, the prepaid card is not available everywhere. It is available in banks and Titas Gas office only. So, if a consumer's card is finished at night, he will have to wait till the morning for his burner to function. Again if the meter does not work for some reason or the other, then his burner won't supply gas.

The engineers of Titas Gas say that they have installed the meter for only one year. Then who will take care of it after the expiry of one year? There are many questions now in the minds of the local people about the new system. We congratulate the government and Titas Gas, but they must ensure that the new system works well in the interest of the people.

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It is not enough to introduce something new, they have to take into consideration the problems that the consumers may face.