Additional budgetary allocations have been sought for public entities under different ministries to enable them to pay off electricity-bill arrears as they owe a hefty amount to the power-distribution companies.
Sources say the Power Division has requested the Ministry of Finance to make additional allocations in favour of the ministries and divisions concerned to bail out the bill defaulters.
According to Power Division data available until August this year, the public entities under the ministries/divisions owe some Tk 24.30 billion to the electricity-distribution companies.
"Due to the non-payment of bills the power-distribution companies have been incurring financial losses alongside facing disruptions to the upgrading of their distribution system," reads a recent letter sent by the Power Division to the ministries and divisions concerned.
The Power Division in another letter earlier in the first week of November to Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed requested his necessary steps and cooperation so that requisite funds are allocated in favour of the ministries and divisions in the revised budget to make the payment of due electricity bills.
A senior Finance Division official has told The Financial Express that ministries and divisions are being allocated funds in the revised budget, if necessary, and if they can substantiate their requirements.
"But we have asked them to make realistic demand and not to seek funds unnecessarily," he said.
According to the data, the entities under the Local Government Division, until August last, owed some Tk 9.5 billion to Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB), Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB), Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), Dhaka Electricity Supply PCL (DESCO), West Zone Power Distribution Company Ltd (WZPDCL), and Northern Electricity Supply PLC (NESCo).
The second-highest bill defaulters are entities under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief who owe some Tk 6.14 billion to the distribution companies.
The entities under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works owe some Tk 1.56 billion to the companies, standing on the third rung of default ladder.
Also, the entities under the Ministry of Defence, Secondary and Higher Education Division, Health Services Division, and the Ministry of Religious Affairs are among the 57 ministries and divisions who owe a significant amount of power-bill arrears to the distribution companies.
And the entities under the Power Division are also in the rank of defaulter, owing Tk 155 million to the distribution companies, the data show.
A senior official at the Bangladesh Power Development Board says in the last fiscal year the government incurred a staggering loss worth Tk 550 billion for selling electricity at lower than the generation costs. In the previous fiscal year, the loss was some Tk 500 billion.
The post-uprising interim government paid Tk 380 billion as subsidy to the BPDB to make up for the loss.
He says, "The delay in getting power bills from the public entities mount the financial losses of the distribution companies."
Finance Division officials say the government is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cut the power-sector subsidy.
"But," he says, "instead of lessening, the subsidy payment is increasing every year, which creates severe problem in government's fiscal management amid low revenue generation."
syful-islam@outlook.com