Adani will take$1.12 b from BD in a year

Zarif Mahmud : Adani’s Godda plant in Jharkhand, India started full-scale power generation in June last year. Due to coal shortage, the production is reduced for a few days but the rest of the time the plant is running at full capacity. The company is regularly supplying 1,496 megawatts of electricity from the center to Bangladesh. This electricity bill will cost Adani $1.12 billion in a year, which is more than the construction cost of the Karnaphuli tunnel.
According to sources, the Power Development Board (PDB) is not able to pay Adani’s bills regularly due to dollar shortage. Four months of bills still piled up. Therefore, Bangladesh Bank has approved the payment of $1.12 billion for Adani’s Godda power plant. These dollars will be used to pay bills for one year from June 2023 to May 2024. This bill will be paid through Wapda branch of Sonali Bank. LC has already been opened for this.
An account in this regard has also reached the media including Daily Industry. It can be seen that the energy bill will be $66 crore 47 lakh 35 thousand 292 dollars to buy electricity from Adani in one year. And the capacity charge will be $45 crore 66 lakh 41 thousand 125. However, the stakeholders believe that Adani will have to pay at least $1.0 billion more every year to buy the electricity bill.
According to the information, $24.05 crore have been paid for Adani’s electricity bill from last June to August. Among them, the fuel bill was $14.03 crore and the capacity charge was $10.03 crore. And for the remaining 9 months from September to May, $888.26 million have to be paid. Among them, the fuel bill is $52.44 crore and the capacity charge is $35.64 crore.
A senior official of Sonali Bank, on condition of anonymity, told that Bangladesh Bank has already been requested to give a discount of $1.12 billion in payment of Adani’s bill. Bangladesh Bank has also approved this proposal. This bill will be paid in terms of submission of monthly bill from PDB.
According to PDB sources, Adani has submitted electricity supply bills from September to December. It can be seen that in September, Adani will have to pay a bill of $100.43 million, in October $100.47 million, in November $9.08 million and in December $9.25 million. In addition, the January bill may stand at $9.25 crore.
Apart from this, PDB has estimated Adani’s probable bill from February to May. Among them, the bill for February can be $8.74 crore, $10.47 crore in March, $10.26 crore in April and $10.47 crore in May. However, regardless of the amount of electricity purchased, Adani will have to pay a capacity charge of $3.96 crore every month.
Incidentally, Bangladesh has signed an agreement to purchase electricity from Adani’s Godda plant for 25 years. In this case, at least 34 percent of the power of the center must be purchased every year. However, whatever amount of electricity is purchased, the capacity charge will be about four million dollars per month. About $11.83 billion will be spent on capacity charges in 25 years.