Dhaka: Voicing concern over the media reports on the government's plan to hike the power tariff, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Wednesday called upon it to refrain from such anti-people move.

"There're media reports that Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission is going to increase the power tariff within a few days. A process is on to raise the power price instead of decreasing it though the electricity generation cost in Bangladesh saw a cut due to a fall in the fuel price in the global market. It's an anti-mass and unprecedented move," said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.

Speaking at a press conference at BNP's central office in Dhaka’s Nayapaltan, he said people will not accept if the power tariff is hiked. "I on behalf of BNP strongly condemn the initiative to hike the power tariff and call upon the government to back off from such anti-people decision."

The government hiked the power price last time on September 1, 2015 as it increased its price six times since 2010.

Rizvi alleged that the government is trying to hike the power tariff due to high production cost of quick rental power stations.

"Quick rental power is a curse for economy. Relatives of the top ruling party leaders are involved with such projects. The government has now taken a step to raise the power price to give them further scope of plundering public money," he alleged.

Describing power and energy as a sector of plundering, the BNP leader said the government has set up quick rental power plants with its preferred people. "Thousands of crore of Taka of taxpayers are being given as subsidy to those plants. They're now making a fresh plan to dug holes into people's pockets by increasing the power price further."

He warned that the hike in the power price will push up the prices of all essential commodities.

Rizvi slammed the government for not lowering the fuel price despite a sharp slide in its price in the international market.