March 19, 2024, 4:01 pm


Shamim Jahangir

Published:
2022-09-27 19:09:59 BdST

Two-month Payment to Rental, Quick Rental, IPP Bills: Finance Division releases Tk 4,146cr


The Finance Division released Tk 4,145.88 crore fund to pay bulk electricity bills to rental, quick rental and Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

The Division under the Ministry of Finance released the fund on Sunday along with six conditions to ensure the best utilisation of the fiscal subsidy.

Previously, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) was supposed to pay the electricity purchase bills to rental, quick rental and IPP’s in every three months if it has crossed around seven months, an official of the BPDB said.

He added that the amount of the unpaid electricity bills and fuel purchase cost jumped to over $2 billion.    

According to the BPDB sources, the Finance Division released the unpaid bills for the months of January and February this fiscal year.

Of the bills, the division released Tk 2,177.74 crore which was unpaid in the month of January and it was Tk 1968.14 crore for the month of February.

Finance Division deputy secretary Md Tawhidul Islam issued an official order in this regard on September 25, 2022.

The Finance Division asked the Power Division to take necessary steps for adjustment of the power tariff and cutting the capacity charge payment in a rational way.   

The Power Division recently said it paid Tk 16,785 crore as capacity charge payment for nine months of the last fiscal year.

Besides, the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) plans to announce power tariff hike anytime at retail level despite opposition from the consumer rights groups. 

It said the fund will be used only for payment of rental, quick rental and IPP’s bills. The description of the payment of the bills will be addressed in the next proposal of bill payment.

Now, the compensation of the costly electricity generation will be submitted in the first week of each month instead of every three months, the Finance Division instructions said.

The division also asked to conduct an annual audit of the payment of rental, quick rental and IPP’s bills.  

It also suggested setting up real time data Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for managing subsidies properly.     

The Finance Division also asked the Power Division to send any proposal before the Finance Division for extension of the power plants and installation of new ones.

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