The government has proposed that the Indian industrial giant Tata Group offload a part of its Bangladesh industrial projects share to public and brand its products for Tata Bangladesh in international market.

The Tata Group is considering the proposal positively and agreed in principle to label its locally produced items under Tata Bangladesh, sources said.

Industries ministry officials and a team of Tata Group discussed the proposal at a meeting yesterday at the ministry conference room.

The ministry officials proposed Tata representatives to supply fertiliser to Bangladesh to fulfil domestic requirement on priority basis, which was agreed by the team.

Tata plans to annually produce 10 lakh tonnes of urea at its Banshkhali Fertiliser Industry, while Bangladesh has a shortage of eight lakh tonnes fertiliser annually.

The government proposed the group to tag the tariff value of its fertiliser in line with the Bangladesh coal and gas tariff. The Asian century-old conglomerate disagreed on the point and demanded that the government should place specific tariff rate for

procuring fertiliser.

On arbitration in international trading law, the group prefers to settle any future dispute in London, while the government wants it to be settled in Dhaka.

The ministry officials sought the law ministry vetting in signing the sales and purchase agreement and discussed its terms and conditions in detail.

Another meeting between the group officials and the government at the Power Development Board (PDB) office discussed the terms and conditions of Tata-produced power.

PDB officials sought more time to

set the tariff value of Tata's electricity, as the government never had electricity from coal-fired power stations.

The group now wants to sell the government 600 megawatt power from its two power plants instead of the earlier proposed 500 MW.

Tata said it will consume 400 MW at its steel plant and the remaining 600 MW may be sold out to the government.

The government has agreed in principle to procure Tata's additional power, saying talks on tariff setting will be held later as its recruited consultant is yet to submit a report in this connection.

The group demanded backup power support from the national grid in case of accidents. However, the government declined to entertain the request and told Tata to use captive power in such cases.