Anisul Islam noor :
The government has recently decided to collect one billion dollar from the capital market to finance a series of public-sector power projects as part of its efforts to generate additional 20,000mw of electricity by the year 2030.
To achieve the target, Power Development Board (PDB) and other power generation and supply companies will float shares in the capital market.Former PDB chairman Alamgir Kabir said, it is a hard work, as the power companies work independently and have separate board.
Professor Nurul Islam said, it is a good, but the initiative will face challenge from within the power companies’ management. At present, the companies work independently though all of them are subsidiaries of PDB. “So we will modify act so that PDB can apply its strong rule on power supply and generation companies,” said Nasrul Hamid, State Minister for Power and Energy.
The government has so far invested $5 billion in power sector in last six years. Another $8 billion will be required for the ongoing power projects, power division officials said.
The Power Division would require $16 billion investment in the power sector by 2021. He said, state-run oil companies like Padma, Meghna and Jamuna have already been listed in the stock market to mobilize funds for financing their own projects.
“We have a plan to issue shares, bonds and other financial instruments in the stock market for mobilising fund from the members of the public for the power projects,” the minister said.
“The cost of fund is very high for power projects,” the state minister said. The government has a plan to generate 4,607MW of electricity from public owned power project by 2018, according to power division officials. Besides, another 3,895mw of electricity would come from private power projects by the same period.
As per the long-term roadmap, the government will implement seven coal-fired power projects in the public sector having a total capacity to generate 7,315MW of electricity.
Besides, another 8,000mw and 3,660mw of electricity would come from coal-fired projects to be implemented in joint ventures and by private sector respectively. “We would require soft loan or funds from the stock market to implement these mega projects as term loans will be risky for such projects,” an official said. The power Division said it is concerned over the `investment risk’ associated with export credit agency (ECA) loans though it has already mobilized or has secured confirmation for funds worth $2.34 billion for implementing power project from ECA funding. Lately, the government has been facing difficulty in mobilising soft loans for mega power projects in the public sector, informed sources said.
