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Power payment on knock-on roll

Two PDB-Petrobangla meetings next week

SHARIER KHAN
The energy ministry will ask the Power Development Board (PDB) to arrange payment of at least Tk 300 crore to the Petrobangla on an urgent basis.
In its turn, the PDB would ask the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA) - the biggest bill defaulter in the chain of gas and power sectors -to arrange the same.
Meanwhile, the DESA, which never has enough cash to operate on its own, would seek loan from commercial banks.
These issues will be resolved at two separate meetings next week, a top Petrobangla source said. The first meeting will take place at the Power Division of the energy ministry with the Petrobangla and the PDB on May 4. The state minister for power and the power division secretary will be present at the meeting.
The second meeting with the Petrobangla and the PDB will take place at the finance ministry on May
7 with the finance minister in the chair.
The Petrobangla has asked for both these meetings, sources said.
The PDB, which consumes half the gas produced and supplied by the Petrobangla, owes the latter Tk 512 crore for a long time.
In such a context, the Petrobangla in March announced that if the PDB failed to pay the arrears, equivalent to the power board's seven months' gasconsumption billing, it would be compelled to cut down gas supplies to the power plants.
As the power board did not take the warning seriously, the Petrobangla contacted the finance ministry, the home ministry and the National Security Intelligence (NSI), seeking their cooperation in disconnecting gas supplies to some of the PDB power plants.
The Petrobangla has become desperate because it is unable to pay the international oil companies (IOCs) - Shell and Unocal - around
US$50 million in bills for Sangu and Jalalabad gas under production sharing contracts (PSCs).
A major earner for the country which annually contributes around Tk 1,500 crore to the public exchequer in taxes and duty, and another Tk 100 crore in dividend, the Petrobangla now faces severe liquidity crisis as more than Tk 1,400 crore lies pending with its state-owned and private-sector clients.
The PDB aside, the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) alone owes it Tk 240 crore.
The power board, in its turn, is crippled by liquidity crisis as its clients have not paid over Tk 5,500 crores, with Tk 3,500 pending with the DESA alone.
"The financial management situation in the energy sector has become unbearable and something must be done about it," commented a high official of the Petrobangla.
To set the ball rolling, the DESA would be asked to seek bank loan on
commercial basis.
"Although it is a loss-making organisation, the DESA does not have any liability other than arrears with the PDB in power purchase," said a source. "The finance ministry will guide the DESA in this regard."
The DESA loses Tk 30 crore every month in power and revenue, thanks to a section of unscrupulous meter readers and ledger writers.
It purchases electricity worth Tk 100 crore every month from the PDB, but is able to pay around Tk 75 crore, leaving a gap of Tk 25 crore.
Besides streamlining gas arrears, the Petrobangla is also trying to streamline two of its affiliates, Titas Gas and Bakhrabad Gas, which are dominated by politically-blessed, unscrupulous trade union activists who devour up to Tk 500 crore worth of gas every year.