Anisul Islam Noor :
The government had already paid Tk5150 crore as subsidy to the power sector during the first nine months of the current fiscal ministry sources said.
At present about Tk 572.5 crore is paid as subsidy per month, which will continue for the next three months because of the summer and the irrigation season, transpiring that the target of power subsidy for Tk 6,000 crore would be superceded, sources said.
The consumers have to pay higher price and the country’s economy bears the load of huge subsidy due to excessive dependence on costly rental and quick rental power plants, experts said.
Before power tariff hike, the subsidy amounted to Tk 231.21 crore in February, but rose by Tk 53.98 crore in March. The generation of costly electricity from liquid fuel based power projects jumped to over 2100MW from March, which was nearly half in the previous month.
In a recent letter to power division secretary, PDB said, they need budgetary support to compensate losses for supplying power at comparatively lower tariff to bulk consumers against the higher purchasing cost from rental, quick rental and independent power projects.
The PDB has received Tk 2527.38 crore as subsidy from July 2013 to November 2013 as loan to compensate the losses it suffered for purchasing costly electricity, the letter read.
Besides, another Tk 306.88 crore as loan to meet the losses for December 2013 and January is in the pipeline, the letter said. “PDB would make payments to IPP and rental power companies with the government budgetary support,” the PDB letter said.
It also paid advance payments to the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) for supplying fuels to power plants, the letter said adding, the board would face trouble in case of delay in getting the subsidy amount.
During the period 2009 to 12, the tenures of seven rental power projects were extended while two projects got time extension in this tenure.
The projects are: 50MW DAP power, 78.5MW Max power, 100MW Desh Energy, owned by former FBCCI president Annisul Huq, 50MW RZ power owned by battery maker company Rahimafrooz, 55MW UK-based Aggreko Power, 55MW Energies Power of Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, 110MW Quantum of furniture maker Otobi, 110MW Khulna Power of United Group, 78.5MW Max Power, 50MW DPA of Bangladesh Army and 55MW of Precession Energy.
The government was forced to extend the projects as most of the base load power projects, especially in private sector, delayed in implementation, power sector insider said.
The sponsors who delayed in implementing the projects now seek approval for oil-run costly power projects, officials said. They promised to implement the power projects at the quickest possible time, insider said.
