Energy guide

Bangladesh Electricity Bill & Unit Price 2026 (DESCO, DPDC, BPDB)

Bangladesh unit price 2026: ৳6.18 (first 75 units) to ৳17.35 (600+), plus the ৳5.32 lifeline. DESCO/DPDC step table, 5% VAT, and a worked bill.

Written by Saroj Roy, founder and maintainer, numbertrove · Formula checked against the sources below · Updated 2026-09-12

The Bangladesh electricity unit price in 2026 runs from ৳5.32 (lifeline, up to 50 units) and ৳6.18 for the first 75 units to ৳17.35 once a month passes 600 units. A Bangladesh residential electricity bill is not one price multiplied by one number of units. The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) sets a step tariff, so each block of kilowatt-hours in the month is priced separately and the blocks are added together before fixed charges and VAT go on top. Once you can see the steps, you can check a DESCO, DPDC, or BPDB bill line by line and work out which appliance is pushing you into the expensive blocks.

The BERC residential step tariff

Every distribution company in Bangladesh (DESCO and DPDC in Dhaka, BPDB, NESCO, and WZPDCL elsewhere) bills residential customers on the same BERC retail schedule. The current residential steps are: 0–75 kWh at ৳6.18 per unit, 76–200 kWh at ৳8.50, 201–300 kWh at ৳9.10, 301–400 kWh at ৳9.62, 401–600 kWh at ৳15.01, and everything above 600 kWh at ৳17.35. One unit on your bill is one kilowatt-hour.

There is also a lifeline rate of ৳5.32 per unit, but it only applies when your whole month is 50 kWh or less. Use 51 units and the lifeline disappears: all 51 are billed from the normal steps starting at ৳6.18. BERC revised the lifeline and first-step rates in a 2026 order, so if you are checking an older bill the first two rates may differ slightly.

How incremental steps work

The steps are incremental, not flat. Using 250 units does not mean 250 × ৳9.10. The first 75 are priced at the first rate, the next 125 at the second, and only the final 50 at the third. For a 250 kWh month: 75 × 6.18 = ৳463.50; 125 × 8.50 = ৳1,062.50; 50 × 9.10 = ৳455.00. The energy charge is ৳1,981.00, an average of ৳7.92 per unit.

For a 450 kWh month the first three blocks are the same (৳463.50 + ৳1,062.50 + 100 × 9.10 = ৳910.00), then 100 × 9.62 = ৳962.00 for units 301–400, and 50 × 15.01 = ৳750.50 for units 401–450. The energy charge is ৳4,148.50, an average of ৳9.22 per unit. Notice that the last 50 units cost ৳750.50, more than the first 75 and next 50 combined. Nearly doubling consumption from 250 to 450 units more than doubles the energy charge, and unit 601 onwards costs ৳17.35, almost three times the first-step rate.

Demand charge, meter rent, and VAT

Two fixed lines appear whether you use one unit or a thousand. The demand charge is ৳42 per kilowatt of sanctioned load per month, so a typical 1 kW residential connection pays ৳42 and a 2 kW connection pays ৳84. Meter rent for a single-phase meter is ৳40 per month on most bills; three-phase meters cost more. Both figures are printed on the bill, so read yours rather than assuming.

VAT at 5% is charged on the energy charge plus these fixed charges. For the 250 kWh postpaid example: ৳1,981.00 + ৳42 + ৳40 = ৳2,063.00, VAT is ৳103.15, and the bill is ৳2,166.15. For 450 kWh: ৳4,148.50 + ৳82 = ৳4,230.50, VAT is ৳211.53, and the bill is ৳4,442.03. Arrears, late-payment surcharges, and one-off connection or reconnection fees are added separately and are not part of the tariff calculation.

Prepaid versus postpaid

A postpaid bill covers one reading cycle, which is not always exactly a calendar month. If the reader comes on day 33 instead of day 30, three extra days of consumption land in the same bill and can push you into a higher step. Check the previous and present reading dates on the bill before you decide the tariff has gone up.

Prepaid meters charge the same steps but track cumulative units within the month, so the first recharge of the month buys the cheap first-step units and a late-month recharge buys units at your current step. Prepaid customers receive a 1% rebate on the energy charge: on the 250 kWh example that is ৳19.81 off, giving ৳2,146.34 instead of ৳2,166.15. The catch is the recharge deductions. Demand charge, meter rent, and VAT are taken out of the first recharge of each month, so a ৳1,000 recharge on the first of the month may add only about ৳870 worth of units. Recharge in larger amounts less often to avoid confusion about where the money went.

How to read units on the meter

On a postpaid digital meter the main register shows cumulative kWh since installation. Your monthly units are the present reading minus the previous reading: 14,862 − 14,612 = 250 kWh. Both readings are printed on the bill, so photograph the meter on the reading date and compare. If the meter shows kWh and kVAh alternately, use the kWh figure.

Prepaid meters cycle through several displays: remaining balance in taka, remaining units, cumulative kWh, current load in kW, and tariff step. Note the cumulative kWh at the start of the month and again mid-month to see your pace. If you have used 210 units by the 20th, you are heading for about 315 for the month and have already left the ৳9.10 step behind.

What typical appliances use each month

A 75 W ceiling fan running 10 hours a day uses 75 × 10 × 30 ÷ 1,000 = 22.5 kWh a month, so three fans account for roughly 65–70 units. Six 10 W LED bulbs for six hours a day add about 11 kWh; the old 40 W tube lights they replaced would use 43. A 43-inch LED TV at 70 W for five hours a day uses about 10.5 kWh. A 250-litre refrigerator draws 150–200 W when the compressor runs and averages 1.0–1.5 kWh a day, or 30–45 kWh a month, depending on age, door openings, and room temperature. A 0.75 kW water pump for an hour a day adds another 22.5 kWh.

The air conditioner dwarfs everything else. A 1.5-ton inverter AC averages 1.2–1.5 kW over a night once the room is cool; eight hours a night for 30 nights is 290–360 kWh on its own. That single appliance is why a household that sits at 180 units in winter lands at 500 or more in summer, and why the summer units are billed at ৳15.01 rather than ৳8.50.

Where the real savings are

Because the tariff is stepped, a saved unit is worth the rate of your highest step, not your average rate. A household at 450 units that trims 40 kWh saves 40 × 15.01 = ৳600.40 plus VAT, about ৳630, even though its average rate is only ৳9.22. The same 40 kWh saved at 200 units is worth ৳340 plus VAT. Savings matter most for the heaviest users.

The levers, in order of size: run the AC one hour less each night (roughly 40 kWh a month), set it to 26 °C rather than 20 °C (each degree of raise saves around 5–7% of AC energy), keep the fridge full but not packed and its door seals intact, replace remaining tube lights and CFLs with LEDs, and run fans on speed 3 instead of 5 where comfort allows. Timing helps prepaid users too: if a big purchase like an iron or rice cooker can wait until next month, it may be billed on a cheaper step.

Sources

The figures and rules in this guide are checked against: