State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Tuesday said the Power Division will get Tk 1,893 crore as unpaid electricity bills from various ministries and departments of the government till September this year.
He said the Power Division will get a maximum amount of Tk 905.21 crore from the Local Government Division.
In response to a query from ruling Awami League MP Md Mozaffar Hossain, he said by strengthening supervision and implementing various activities at the field level, it has been possible to reduce the amount of electricity bill in arrears in the past few years.
He said the government has taken various initiatives including holding inter-ministerial meetings for the collection of dues from different government organisations, preparing a list of bill defaulters and taking steps to recover them and disconnecting electricity, if necessary, to collect the unpaid electricity bills.
He also said all the customers are being brought under prepaid/smart meters to reduce the arrears in electricity bills.
In response to a query from Awami League MP Shahiduzzaman Sarker, the state minister said according to the latest (July 1, 2022) estimate, the amount of proven and potential recoverable gas reserves in the country is 28.59 trillion cubic feet.
From the beginning of gas production to June 30, 2022, the cumulative amount of gas in the country is 19.53 trillion cubic feet.
Currently, the remaining recoverable reserves are 9.06 trillion cubic feet. Considering the average daily production of 2,300 million cubic feet of gas, it will be possible to use the remaining gas for nearly 11 years (10.8 years).
The mentioned time may be increased or decreased if the daily gas production is decreased and increased following the invention of new gas fields, he added.
In response to another question, the state minister said that Bangladesh needs to import LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) and if the price does not decrease in the international market, there is no opportunity to reduce the price of LPG in the domestic market without government subsidy.
In response to Nizam Uddin Hazari's question, the state minister said that from the financial year 2009-10 to 2021-22, $28.3 billion have been invested in the power sector.
Of this, $9.73 billion have been invested in the private sector for electricity.
In response to Jatiya Party's Rustam Ali Farazi's question, Nasrul said the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) is making a loss of Tk 21 per litre in selling diesel.
In response to Awami League MP M Abdul Latif’s query on countrywide ongoing load-shedding, he said that due to the global energy crisis following the Russia-Ukraine war, Bangladesh is trying to overcome the energy crisis through the economic use of electricity and planned load-shedding.
As per the plan, he said, the new coal-based power plants will be connected to the grid and by ensuring the cost-effective use of electricity, it will be possible to overcome the crisis soon.
BNP MP Harunur Rashid came down heavily on the government for what he said widespread looting, corruption and mismanagement in the power and energy sector.
Harun proposed that the speaker arrange a discussion on this issue in parliament.
In reply, Nasrul blasted Harun for the past BNP-Jamaat government’s alleged involvement in corruption in the power sector.
