The Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and public sector power plants owe a cumulative amount of Tk195 billion to Petrobangla until mid-November for their consumption of natural gas to generate electricity, officials said on Saturday.
The IPPs, mostly run by foreign companies, and the power plants of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) do not pay the gas bills timely, causing the outstanding to reach that extent, said a senior official at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD).
The IPPs sell their electricity to the BPDB for feeding the national grid.
The EMRD has recently sought a fund of Tk 5.0 billion from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) as subsidy to pay the outstanding bills, officials at the MoF said.
Early this year, the MoF released a subsidy of Tk 20 billion for the EMRD to pay outstanding bills of different companies and agencies, the MoF officials said.
Meanwhile, the government liabilities on account of capacity charge to the IPPs and rental power plants were recorded at Tk 25.17 billion in December 2023, which picked up by 84.62 per cent to Tk 46.47 billion in June last, the MoF officials said.
The liabilities to these power plants ballooned to Tk 34.05 billion in January 2024, while the outstanding was recorded at Tk 31.41 billion in February, Tk 31.96 billion in March, Tk 35.65 billion in April, Tk 39.78 billion in May and Tk 46.47 billion in June last.
The huge outstanding gas bills have made the state-owned energy corporation Petrobangla's liquidity position vulnerable and fail to pay outstanding taxes and VAT to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) for years, another EMRD official pointed out.
"If we get the overdue bills, we will be able to pay the taxes. We are struggling for funds to pay the taxes," he said.
Petrobangla's unpaid taxes and VAT would be around Tk 350 billion until mid-November, the MoF data showed.
The ousted Sheikh Hasina government in their 15-year tenure allowed as many as 82 IPPs and 32 rental power plants for supplying power to the national grid.
The government has since been purchasing power from the IPPs and rental power plants at higher rates than the retail prices, making the government heavily indebted.
On the other hand, Petrobangla is selling natural gas to the IPPs and rental power plants at a lower price than that of the imported regasified LNG.
The government has also to pay capacity charges and others for the power plants at higher prices.
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