Govt's no to 20pc power bill rebate facility for fish, livestock and poultry farms

The government has decided not to include fisheries, hatcheries, livestock and poultry farms in its existing 20 per cent electricity bill rebate scheme, despite recognising their rising costs of production.

The decision was taken at an inter ministerial meeting, which was held recently to review a proposal sent by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock (MoFL), seeking inclusion of the marginal fish farms, hatcheries, and livestock and poultry farms under the rebate list.

Chaired by Rahima Begum, Director General of Monitoring Cell under the Finance Division, the meeting gave its decision against extending the 20 per cent electricity bill rebate to cover grassroots-level fish farms (matsya khamar), hatcheries, and livestock and poultry farms.

At present, the farm owners are to pay commercial power tariffs, which significantly inflate the cost of producing fish, meat, eggs and milk, a high official at the MoFL acknowledged.

The meeting argued that new subsidies would strain the economy and also contradict with the ongoing efforts to reduce financial support ahead of the country's graduation to Least Developed Country (LDC).

A senior official, who attended the meeting, said increased electricity costs have been discouraging small producers. As a result, such essential protein items almost go beyond the purchasing power of ordinary consumers, the official observed.

But, the Finance Division representatives cautioned against expanding subsidies at a time when Bangladesh is preparing for LDC graduation and also facing IMF requirements to reduce subsidies.

At present, some 16 agricultural and agro-processing sectors enjoy rebate facilities in the electricity bills.

The sectors namely food processing, dairy, spice grinding, salt processing, seed processing, poultry industry and agricultural irrigation are funded under the ministry's budget.

According to the Rural Electrification Board (REB), the disbursements of such rebate under three livestock-related categories--poultry feed, fish feed, and the poultry industry--amounted to Tk 702 million, Tk 704.2 million, 767.2 million, 567 million and 377.8 million respectively over the last five fiscal years.

During the last five years (from 2021-22 to 2025-26 fiscal years) the total amounts of reimbursed funds for irrigation and agro-based industries under 16 sectors were Tk 2.265 billion, Tk 2.32 billion, Tk 2.82 billion, Tk 2.11 billion and Tk 1.19 billion respectively.

Considering the overall situation, the meeting asked the MoFL to prepare a 5-year concept paper on the total amount of rebate disbursed in the last 5-year and also the amount to be required in the next 5 years for the three sectors, including the industries that prepare balanced feed for poultry and livestock using rice bran, husk, chickpeas, maize, oilcake, etc, fish feed production and the poultry industry.

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