Friday, 29 Mar, 2024
  Dhaka
Friday, 29 Mar, 2024
The Daily Post

Power department saddled with huge outstanding bills

Mohiuddin Rabbany

Power department saddled  with huge outstanding bills

The electricity department is not able to collect the outstanding bills despite the ongoing crisis in electricity. This important sector has not fallen into such a big crisis in the past. The sector is running a deficit of billions of taka every year, on the other hand, the customers have outstanding bills of crores of taka. Most of the outstanding bills have accumulated in government institutions. Apart from this, the autonomous institutions as well as the private customers also have huge bills. Recently, in response to a question in the National Assembly, State Minister for Power Nasrul Hamid said that until September of this year, the electricity department owes Tk 1,893 crore 42 lakhs to various ministries and departments of the government. Out of this, Tk 905 crore 21 lakh is owed to the local government department and Tk 395 crore 68 lakh to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.

The State Minister said that various ministries and departments and various government offices and organizations under their control have not paid the electricity bill regularly, so there is a huge amount of electricity bill outstanding. However, supervision is stronger against outstanding bills in the field level helps to reduce the amount of arrears. According to the information of the State Minister, 88.46 million taka are owed to the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, 64.22 million taka to the Public Security Department, 63.61 million taka to the Ministry of Agriculture, 43.56 million taka to the Secondary and Higher Education Department and 39.99 million taka to the Health Department. Ministry of Electricity. In this regard, the government has taken various initiatives to collect the dues of electricity bills. All customers are gradually being brought under prepaid smart meters to reduce their electricity bill arrears. As of last September, 51 lakh seven thousand 452 pre-paid smart meters have been installed. Another 2 million pre-paid smart meters will be installed within the next one year. Meanwhile, the government is repeatedly increasing the price of electricity due to subsidies. Sources in the Finance Ministry said that if the prices are not adjusted, the electricity and gas sector will require Tk 35,300 crore in the coming financial year. Which is about eight thousand crores more than the current year. 27 thousand 484 crores have been allocated in the current financial year. Experts say that subsidies are needed to keep the country‍‍`s overall economy strong. But it is not reasonable for the arrears to remain like this. Another example of power sector dislocation is electricity arrears. They said, considering the socio-economic aspects of our country, there may be little dues. But an organization can‍‍`t run if there are crores of taka in arrears. Meanwhile, even though there are rules, in many cases they are not effective in recovering electricity dues. Act No. 7 of the Electricity Act-2018 (Chapter VIII) states that, notwithstanding anything contained in any other law, document or agreement for the time being in force, if any amount or any other amount due to a customer for the supply of electricity under this Act is due Public Demands Recovery Act, 1913 (Bengal Act, No. III of 1913) shall be recovered as Government dues. Apart from this, there are provisions for disconnection due to illegal connection and outstanding bills. According to the rules, 1. If any customer fails to pay the electricity bill or any person uses electricity illegally, the licensee may disconnect the electricity connection of that customer or person following the prescribed procedure. 2. No court shall order the licensee to re-connect the electricity to a customer if the electricity connection is disconnected under sub-section-1. 3. If any bill remains unpaid due to the negligence of the concerned electricity employee in preparing and collecting the electricity bill, the responsibility of the concerned electricity employee will fall on him. According to an estimate of the Ministry of 2021, the electricity department owes 8 thousand 556 crore 63 lakh taka to the customers in the country. Of this, 6,962, crore 74 lakh is owed to the private sector, and 7, 46 crore, 86 lakh is owed to various government departments by the power department. In the fiscal year 2009-10 to 2021-22, an investment of 28.3 billion dollars has been made in the power sector. Of this, private sector has invested 9.73 billion dollars in power generation.

Nasrul Hamid said that the government has taken various initiatives to collect the outstanding electricity bills. These include setting and monitoring year-wise arrears reduction targets in the Annual Performance Agreement (APA), regular monitoring of electricity bill arrears collection activities in monthly coordination meetings by the Power Department, holding inter-ministerial meetings for collection of arrears to government, semi-government and autonomous institutions, collection of arrears. Taking the cooperation of the divisional commissioners, including the issue of payment of outstanding electricity bills in the monthly coordination meeting at the district level, taking measures to collect the bills by preparing a list of defaulting customers and disconnecting the electricity connection if necessary.

Earlier in a report, it is known that the outstanding electricity bill of 54 government institutions is 1 thousand 770 crore taka. A quarter of Tk 2,000 crore electricity bills are outstanding in various ministries and departments of the government. As of last February, the outstanding amount has stood at one thousand 769 crore five lakh taka. In November last year, its amount was 1 thousand 517 crores.

There is a conflict between the government and private power plants: Meanwhile, there is a conflict between the government and private power plants over the arrears. Various private power plants owe 16 thousand crores to the government. There is a stalemate between the government and private power plants over outstanding bills. Due to the ongoing power situation, the public suffering is already at an unbearable level. In the meantime, the stalemate has become a blow to the neck. Power plant owners say they are unable to import fuel for power generation due to non-payment of dues. Acknowledging the ongoing problem, Electricity Department Secretary Mohammad Habibur Rahman said, ‍‍`We are trying to solve the problem. We are trying to clear the arrears from May, so that the centres can import fuel. Private power plants run on heavy fuel oil generate 3720 MW of electricity. According to Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) data, their production fell by around 500 MW this month.

20 thousand cases for recovery of electricity dues: A total of 21 thousand 838 cases are going on against customers due to non-payment of electricity dues. Six power distribution companies filed these cases. Against these cases, the total outstanding amount is Tk 594 crore 16 lakh 65 thousand 100. According to sources, the most number of cases have been filed by the Rural Electrification Board. The number of ongoing cases made by them is 9 thousand 845. Against these cases, the outstanding amount is 52 crore 27 lakh 53 thousand 254 taka. There are 4,466 cases filed by the Electricity Development Board. They owe 58 crore 27 lakh 54 thousand 134 taka.

800 MW production closed due to PDB arrears: Private to Govt Power producers owe two billion dollars. The government has not paid the bills of the private power producers for the last five months. According to BPDB documents, the government‍‍`s total expenditure on power generation in the financial year 2021-22 is Tk 71 thousand 878 crore. Of this, 44 thousand 434 crore taka are spent on purchasing electricity from the private sector. BPDB Member (Finance) Sheikh Aktar Hossain said, ‍‍`After May of the current year, no bill has been given to private power producers. The government is trying to pay. BPDB will take action as per government directives. According to the sources, out of the 800 MW currently suspended, 230 MW of Energypack, 113 MW of Hosaf, 200 MW of Rai Lanka, 200 MW of Desh Energy and 50 MW of Ena Power. Bangladesh University of Engineering (BUET) former professor and energy expert. M. Tamim said, ‍‍`Fuel to keep the economy of Bangladesh running. Subsidies are needed to overcome the crisis. Electricity theft and outstanding bills should be stopped in the country. If this theft was stopped, we would not have to buy gas from the spot market." There is a failure of the leadership to achieve self-reliance in the energy sector. We are still far behind in coal and gas exploration. The government is not as proactive in energy procurement as it is in saving energy.

 JH