Average monthly salary exceeds Tk 10 lakh, with bonuses it can soar past Tk 47 lakh
Indian nationals working at the Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company are drawing an average monthly salary of more than Tk 10 lakh, revealed a financial review by the Bangladesh Power Development Board.
An equally owned joint venture of the governments of India and Bangladesh, the company, among its staff, has 51 Indian nationals to run a 1,320MW coal-based power plant situated in Rampal of Bagerhat.
The Indian nationals working at the power plant came on deputation from their original employer NTPC Limited, which is an Indian public sector entity, said the BPDB officials.
A comparison with another power generation joint venture revealed that the Indian nationals employed at Rampal earn three times more than their peers with some Indian nationals鈥� monthly salary being close to Tk 20 lakh.
On one occasion, the BPDB assessment showed that an Indian employee of the power plant drew Tk 47 lakh in one month, thanks to a bonus and other benefits, which also earned most of his fellow nationals between Tk 20 lakh and Tk 30 lakh in the same month.
ANM Obaidullah, member, company affairs, BPDB, who has been a new appointee to the position, cited a lack of in-depth knowledge on the matter before turning down a request for commenting on it.
Anwarul Azim, deputy general manager at the Bangladesh India Friendship Power Co, who usually speaks to the media, did not answer phone calls made to him over the last three days.聽
The BPDB鈥檚 finance wing reviewed the Indian nationals鈥� payments in October last year, three months after a student-led uprising toppled the past Awami League regime.
Discontent was widespread against the past AL government for allowing India to exploit Bangladesh in different aspects of trade and bilateral relations.
A review of the list of 306 people working at the BIFPC revealed that 32 of the top 40 positions were occupied by Indians.
Starting with the position of managing director, the position of project director, all nine positions of general manager, all 18 positions of assistant general manager, and 20 out of 34 deputy general manager鈥檚 positions are held by Indian nationals.
鈥楻ampal does not need so many high officials. This is completely unnecessary,鈥� said a BPDB finance officer, who was involved in the assessment, requesting anonymity.
鈥業ndia shows no interest in having its nationals employed in the lower ranks,鈥� he said.
The Indian nationals are being paid in accordance with their national pay scale, as the joint venture project does not have a separate pay scale, the BPDB said.
Employed under four grades, the Indian nationals鈥� master basic salary ranged between Tk 3,42,121 and Tk 1,44,778, the BPDB assessment revealed.
Besides, the Indian nationals take a foreign dearness allowance, meant for Indian nationals employed outside the country, ranging from $4,333 to $4,670 every month.
Despite Rampal being a losing concern due to frequent closures for technical glitches and other reasons, the Indian nationals were also given preposterous amounts in performance bonuses, the BPDB assessment also revealed.
The details of the paychecks for October 2024 showed that the 51 Indian nationals were paid Tk 13.76 crore. The average monthly salary taken by them in the month was Tk 26.98 lakh. The highest salary paid in the month to an individual Indian national was Tk 47.76 lakh. The lowest salary paid in the month was Tk 13.12 lakh.
The same month, Tk 5 crore was paid in performance-related pay, accounting for 36 per cent of the month鈥檚 overall payment.
In foreign dearness allowance, the Indian nationals took more than Tk 2.7 crore, which accounted for nearly 20 per cent of the overall payment that month.
The encashment of earned leaves also contributed to substantially increasing the October payment of the Indian nationals.
For instance, an analysis of the highest payment of Tk 47.76 lakh revealed that it included Tk 16.92 lakh in performance bonus, Tk 6.36 lakh in leave encashment, and Tk 5.47 lakh in dearness allowance.
The BPDB officials in their analysis questioned Indian officials taking the performance bonus given that the Rampal power plant operated at way lower capacity than expected and financially was a losing concern.
They also raised questions about the encashment of earned leaves, seeking answers to whether the leaves were earned during the official鈥檚 career at the NTPC or during their deputation at the BIFPC, which started commercial operation in December, 2022.
The Rampal power plant, besides importing coal, requires spending dollar to pay the Indian nationals amidst a serious dollar crisis. Bangladesh is taking $4.7 billion from the International Monetary Fund in the wake of the dollar crisis.
India and Bangladesh equally represent the eight-member BIFPC board of directors.
In stark contrast, the Bangladesh China Power Company Limited, a joint venture between Bangladesh and China that runs the 1,320MW coal-fired Payra power plant, has hardly any Chinese staff in its vital positions except for the board of directors equally shared between the countries.
The executive director at the Payra power plant draws about Tk 7 lakh monthly salary. The other international positions next to the ED at the power plant, such as, the chief procurement officer and chief human resources officer, draw a monthly salary of about Tk 4.5 lakh.
The Rampal power plant was built by an Indian company鈥擝harat Heavy Electricals Limited鈥攁fter it won the engineering, procurement and construction contract at $1.49 billion.
Built on over 915 acres, the power project was widely considered environmentally harmful as it was built only 14km away from the Sundarbans, the world鈥檚 largest remaining mangrove forest that crucially shields Bangladesh from deadly cyclones and tidal surges.
Another government report has recently revealed that the Rampal power plant did not even use the effluent treatment plant for three years after it began commercial operation in December 2022.
Considering the power plant鈥檚 potential to cause environmental, social and economic damage, green activists and energy experts have long demanded scrapping of Rampal power plant.
