THE misuse of three special energy funds — set up with money set aside from gas and electricity sales every month to reduce power and energy sector expenses by investing in least cost power production, natural gas exploration and production and energy efficiency — tells how the Awami League government, toppled in a mass uprising in August 2024, breached laws, spent the money for purposes other than intended, did injustice to consumers and, yet, left the state of affairs in the power and energy sector below where it was. The gas development fund, set up August 1, 2009, the power sector development fund, set up on February 1, 2011, and the energy security fund, set up on September 1, 2015, aggregately worth Tk 530 billion in all, had Tk 477 billion as of June 2024 except for the amounts stuck in different stages of transaction and money deducted in taxes. The Awami League government misused 97 per cent of the amount, as the Energy Regulatory Commission data show, and three-fourths of the amount was spent by breaching policies and bending guidelines.
Petrobangla also transferred Tk 30 billion to the state exchequer under the controversial Surplus Fund Act 2020, which allows the government to take away funds that sit idle with state-owned entities. The misuse of the gas development fund featured Tk 210 billion having been spent on the import of liquefied natural gas, which is blamed for plunging the economy in a great measure into the dollar shortage and unprecedented inflation. The gas development fund policy primarily focused on hydrocarbon exploration but only Tk 68 billion of the fund managed by Petrobangla was spent on exploration projects. The prime goal of the energy security fund, which was to protect the future generation from any potential energy shortage, has miserably gone awry. The Consumers Association of Bangladesh says that the funds have also failed to benefit the people, the reasons they were primarily set up. The funds could well be spent on exploration, extraction, purification, transmission and distribution of natural gas. But no such thing has happened. The proposition has led to a situation where the government does not have adequate money to spend on power and energy and any meaningful hydrocarbon exploration activities to bank on.
While the government should hold to justice the people and quarters who dragged the power and energy section into such a deplorable state during the 15 years of authoritarian regime of the Awami League, it should also revisit power and energy policies with an aim to increase its reliance on renewable energy, immediately begin hydrocarbon exploration activities in a competitive environment and strengthen the state agency that is responsible for domestic hydrocarbon exploration. The government’s prime focus should be to benefit the people and protect the country from any probable energy trouble.