Based on private electricity producers’ request, the Power Development Board (PDB) asked Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to nearly triple its import of furnace oil to around 500,000 tonnes a month so that the electricity demand in the summer can be met.
The fourth tranche of the instalment was deferred due to disagreements and now talks are going on to release two tranches at once.
Government officials will face death penalty or minimum life sentence if found guilty of causing the death of enforced disappearance victims, according to a draft ordinance unveiled yesterday.
As much as $900 million has been on hold since 2022 in the central bank's escrow account
The interim government may backtrack from its initial plan to set an ambitious GDP growth target of 6 percent for the next fiscal year amid the new economic reality and settle for 5.5 percent.
The government has set new gas tariffs for the industrial sector, hiking the price by 33 percent for new units, despite objections from businesses and consumer rights organisations.
Bangladesh’s power sector is burdened by overcapacity and systemic inefficiencies, hindering its ability to deliver reliable and cost-effective electricity, says Prof Dr Saifur Rahman, a Bangladeshi expert based in the US.
Protesting students began reaching out to Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus as early as August 1, 2024, through his colleagues, at the peak of the mass uprising against the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Though the electricity demand has dropped with the onset of monsoon, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) is struggling to supply adequate power due to a shortage of gas and other fuel supply and maintenance works.
A two-week-long gas crisis has been affecting homes, factories, and vehicles that run on compressed natural gas, thanks to a dip in supply following the shutdown of an LNG regasification terminal in Cox’s Bazar on May 29.
The revised gross forex reserves target for the current fiscal year ending on June 30 was $29.1 billion. It stood at $24.23 billion on June 5, according to the traditional calculation of the Bangladesh Bank. To meet the goal, another $4.87 billion will have to be added to the reserves by this month.
In Bangladesh, the power generation capacity increased to 30,277 megawatts in 2023-24 from 4,942 MW in 2009, said Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali in his budget speech.
More than a third of the subsidies allocated in the new budget is for the power sector due to what experts say is the huge spending on capacity charges.
They blame govt for focusing on imported solutions rather than own resources
The government will rely more on domestic bank borrowing than foreign financing in the next fiscal year, intensifying pressure on the economy.
With an aim to restore macroeconomic stability, reduce inflation, and contain pressure on foreign currency reserves, Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali is going to place a Tk 7,96,900 crore budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year tomorrow.
The subsidies and incentive expenditures in the upcoming budget are going to be more than that of the current fiscal year.
The vehicles consume only 2.5pc of total power capacity, it says
