JUNE 24 was a day when the demand for power fell 1.88GW short of the demand for 14.89GW, up from a shortage of 278MW against the demand for 14.38GW only 24 hours ago although the installed power generation capacity is 27.51GW. The ongoing mild-to-moderate heatwave that is reported to be sweeping over 31 districts in the divisions of Dhaka, Rajshahi and Khulna beginning three days ago pushed the demand for power up by about 4GW, leaving both the government and people struggling to cope with power outages. People faced power cuts for up to 16 hours in places on the day. An analysis of the daily power generation report that the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh released shows that 114 out of 150 power plants were either partially or completely out of order for one reason or another on the day. Thirty-three plants faced technical problems such as engine or machine troubles, a dozen plants were under maintenance and 18 did not run as their contracts expired. But 46 gas- and furnace oil-run power plants could not run because of fuel shortage. The economic downturn that has been persisting for more than two years seems to be holding back the government from spending on fuel for power.
The situation worsened with the shutdown of a floating storage and re-gasificaion unit after Adani Power had shut down a unit at the 1,600MW Godda plant arguably for maintenance, which Bangladesh authorities say was unscheduled. What seems to be the problem is that the government owes more than $3 billion, as the power ministry says, to power producers at home and abroad, And, the amount includes $500 million in outstanding bills to Adani Power. The decreasing idle funds from state-owned and autonomous enterprises are also reported to have exacerbated the government鈥檚 ability to manage the ongoing fund crisis. Finance Division officials say that about Tk 350 billion in the 2020 and 2021 financial years after the enactment of the Surplus Fund Act 2020. The fund has helped the government to meet the growing development costs amidst less-than-expected revenue generation. But the collection of surplus funds has been suspended since the 2022 financial year as most of the 61 autonomous, semi-autonomous and statutory government agencies are unwilling to make the contribution. Experts say that surplus funds almost used up may have added to the government鈥檚 ongoing fund crunch. A court directive of September 2022 that asked the law and finance secretaries to explain the legality of the act appears to have discouraged the authorities from gleaning whatever amount of idle funds that are there.
Whatever the government says, it appears to be facing a serious economic crisis that it must overcome by employing all means that it can. A first step in this direction could be serious effort on part of the government to repatriate the money that has so far been laundered out. A former minister of state for planning on June 20 put the crisis down to illicit financial flows, by way of which $7鈥�8 billion were annually laundered out. It is time the government acted, early and in earnest.
