2024-03-09 13:18:52
The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources has written to the Secretary of the Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance for a discount of Tk.
According to the relevant sources, this money will be used to settle the unpaid bills of coal import of Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited and domestic coal-based power plants.
According to sources in the power department, to ensure uninterrupted power supply, a letter has recently been sent to the finance department from the finance department under the revenue budget of the government for the fiscal year 2023-2024 to the Bangladesh Electricity Development Board (BABUBO) for the reduction of subsidy due to the shortfall in electricity purchase and sale.
According to Babiubo sources, after giving 10 thousand 599 crore rupees through bonds against the local loans of private power generation companies, the total amount of unpaid bills for electricity purchase from India including government and private power generation companies and Adani is 42 thousand 707 crore 16 lakh rupees till January 2024. In addition to this, the amount of unpaid bills of government power generation companies and domestic import-dependent coal-based power generation companies till January 2024 is 16 thousand 799 crores 83 lakhs.
According to the sources, the electricity department’s letter mentioned that the remaining subsidy amount (35,000-17,000) for the fiscal year 2023-2024 needs to be released for payment of outstanding bills on an emergency basis for uninterrupted power supply during the upcoming holy Ramzan, irrigation and summer season. has been
According to sources, out of this 17 thousand 701 crore rupees, 4,000 crore rupees will be required for the month of March, 4,500 crore rupees for the month of April, 4,500 crore rupees for the month of May and 4,701 crore rupees for the month of June.
According to sources, against the demand of Rs 4,000.00 crore for the month of March 2024, Rs 1,500 crore to pay the dues of Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited and Rs 1,500 crore to pay outstanding bills of domestic coal-based power plants i.e. a total of Rs 3,000 crore as emergency subsidy. As mentioned in the letter for exemption.
In this regard, an official of the finance department admitted to receiving a letter from the power department for a concession of Rs 3,000 crore as subsidy for payment of electricity arrears. He said, I have received the letter from the electricity department. A decision in this regard will be taken soon.
BPDB entered into a power purchase agreement with India’s Adani Group in 2017 to meet the country’s electricity demand. According to the agreement, Bangladesh will buy electricity from the center for 25 years. As per rules, BPDB has to pay the fuel cost of power generation from synchronizing the first unit of the plant till it goes into commercial production (COD). However, BPDB objected to the price of imported coal for this power plant before the start of trial production. This was discussed with Adani’s delegation at the beginning of last year. Later, Adani Power informed BPDB that their electricity prices will be lower than Payra and Rampal plants. It has also been seen in electricity supply that the electricity supplied by Adani in Bangladesh is cheaper per unit than the local large power plants.