Bangladesh Power Development Board owes Tk 33,108 crore to different power generation companies, both public and private, including Indian companies, against their sale of electricity.
State minister for power Nasrul Hamid disclosed the information in parliament on Tuesday in response to a question from ruling Awami League lawmaker Mamunur Rashid from Noakhali-3.
The state minister said that the PDB buys electricity from government, private, and joint venture companies, imports it, and sells it to distribution companies.
Of the total, the state agency owed Tk 10,391 crore to different government power generation and transmission companies and around Tk 15,000 crore to private power generation companies until February.
It owed Tk 2,417 crore to power generation plants聽 set up in joint ventures.
The minister said that the PDB owed Tk 5,297 crore to different Indian companies, including Adani.
In response to a question from independent lawmaker Abdullah Nahid Nigar, the state minister said that currently, the power generation capacity is greater than the demand for electricity in the country.
Although there is no shortage of power generation capacity according to demand, after the Covid-19 pandemic, due to the Ukraine-Russia war and the global energy crisis, power generation was not possible at full capacity, said the state minister.
鈥楢s a result, there is a temporary inconvenience in uninterrupted power supply to some places. In addition, the demand for electricity has increased due to extreme heat in some parts of the country,鈥� he added.
The state minister hoped that the government would soon be able to provide uninterrupted and quality electricity to everyone.
In response to a question from AL lawmaker Ahmed Hossain, the state minister said that a tender had already been issued for the extraction of mineral resources from the deep sea.
He said that 17 companies, including US petroleum giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron, had expressed interest. They took the results of a two-dimensional survey, and the bidding process would end next September.
Companies can be appointed by the middle of next month, and if there is oil and gas, extraction can start after 7-8 years, he said.