Home ›› 08 Sep 2022 ›› Front
Despite criticism of experts, the government has extended the term of four rental power plants for two years.
The total power generation capacity of these plants is 300 MW.
The decision was made at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on the Public Purchase on Wednesday.
Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzak chaired the meeting as Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal was abroad for treatment.
Among the power plants, Power Pack Limited in Dhaka and Akron Infrastructure Services in Chattogram have a production capacity of 100 MW each. Rajshahi’s Northern Power Solutions and Chapainawabganj’s Sinha Power Generation Limited have a power generation capacity of 50 MW each.
The ruling Awami League passed a special power act in 2010 to run rental power plants to meet the power shortage on an emergency basis. A new law was passed in September 2021 to extend the term of such power plants by five years.
The enactment of the law, however, faced widespread criticism in the country, because, even if the plants do not generate electricity, capacity payment has to be made which will be a huge financial pressure on the Bangladesh Power Development Board.
However, sources from the Wednesday’s meeting claimed that the term has been extended on ‘No Electricity No Payment’ basis.
The chairman of the meeting, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzak, did not tell the reporters anything about this after the meeting. Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Division Abdul Barik usually briefs reporters after the meeting, but he did not do that either.
Earlier in March last, the government had extended the term of five other rental power plants in the same manner.
