Steps sought for payment of due electricity bills

Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) has urged the Power Division to take necessary steps for immediate payment of Tk 74.62 million outstanding bills of different city corporations and municipalities under the Local Government Division (LGD), officials said.

Palli Bidyut Samities (PBSs) of BREB provides electricity connections to LGD offices across the country. The BREB's associations are in financial constraints due to price differences between electricity purchase and sale.

The finance department of BREB has recently sent a letter to the Power Division which also forwarded the same to the secretary of the ministry of finance (MoF) in this connection.

The accumulated outstanding electricity bills of different city corporations and municipalities under the LGD stood at Tk 74.62 million until December 2013, the letter said.

The overall development of BREB is not possible due to non-payment of a large number of outstanding bills from different government offices, sources said.

The BREB has been making significant contribution to the development of the country's agriculture, industry, socio-economy and education, they said.

BREB was established in 1977 as a semi-autonomous government organisation and has been providing service to rural member-consumers since then.

It is responsible for electrification of rural areas. As of today, there are 71 operating rural electricity co-operatives called Palli Bidyuit Samity (PBS), which offer about 10 million connections to 562 sub-stations and 0.25 million (250,000) kilometres distribution line.