THE government has extended the tenure of a law by voice vote in Parliament that allows rental power plants to operate for another five years up to 2026. The law originally enacted in 2010 with impunity to allow unsolicited power plants citing acute power shortage and the need for quick power generation avoiding competitive tenders. Amid protests from opposition lawmakers, the bill to extend the law was passed on Thursday citing the ground that it is needed for ensuring reliable, uninterrupted and affordable electricity across the country.
We must say this is a funny and contradictory argument because the government in March this year had decided to immediately shutdown 16 quick and rental power plants to lessen the expenditure from growing capacity charges. Many plants are running half capacity or even shut but taking contractual charges. The closure of the rental power plants was rightly decided early this year. A report on that occasion by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on power, energy and natural resources supported the government decision to shut all rental power plants by 2024. The arguments were that the country now produces enough electricity and expensive power plants are no more needed.
There are 16 such plants currently, with a combined capacity of 1,109MW. Of them, seven plants are gas-fired and together can generate 352MW of electricity, while the rest are furnace oil-fired. We wonder which decision of the government is correct. It changes decisions on every occasion that suits its purposes. Opposition MPs’ objections didn’t stand in the face of a brute ruling party majority in Parliament. They complain the government is blackmailing the nation. This is natural for a government not elected by the people. So it changes directions to benefit the party men selling electricity at an exorbitantly high price of up to Taka 16 per unit while most government run power plants sell power at around Taka 6 per unit. One may not be wrong to say that the life of the law may has been extended for another five years to allow party men to make illegal fortunes.
