Adani repeatedly pressing for $800m electricity dues

India's Adani Group has been repeatedly requesting the interim government to immediately clear dues of around $800 million on their electricity sales, according to officials of Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB). 

Multiple officials confirmed that the group recently asked the PDB, the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Bangladesh Bank and the interim government's chief adviser several times to clear the outstanding bill.

According to the officials, the average monthly bill for the purchase of power from Adani Power Jharkhand Limited is of $90 million to $100 million, whereas the PDB has been able to pay only $20 million to $30 million.

The due has been accumulating over a span of around eight months.

The PDB signed a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) in November 2017 to avail 1,496 megawatts (MW) of electricity from the plant, located in Jharkhand's Godda district.

It is around 10 percent of the country's peak power demand.

The PDB officials said Adani Group sent letters to them asking to at least clear the bills of June and July.

"We are forced to inform you that Godda plant is struggling hard to sustain its operations on account of running expenses towards procurement of coal, debt service obligations, operation and maintenance," a PDB official quoted the letter as saying.

Adani Group repeatedly requested the PDB to clear the dues, pointing out it was to ensure supply of uninterrupted power, he said.

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The PDB cleared only $27 million in July and $13.81 million in August.

"Such meagre payments against the average monthly invoice amount of $90-100 million has resulted in overdue amounts reaching an alarming level of $797.58 million as on August 19," said the letter.

It remains to be known whether any payment has been made after this date.

PDB Member (company affairs) Md Shamsul Alam and Chief Engineer ABM Ziaul Haque were not available over the phone for comment yesterday.

Adani Group's letter mentioned that though they have not received payments in due time, they were continuously supplying electricity.

Data of Power Grid Bangladesh PLC shows that Bangladesh was receiving over 1,000MW of electricity from the power plant.

If the payments are delayed further, the power plant may stop running for a shortage of coal and funds and to meet operation and maintenance expenses, stated another concerned PDB official.

If this happens, the PDB will be faced with a power shortage, much like what had happened in the second half of August, he said.

According to him, although the power plant cited technical glitches during that time, it might have actually come about over the dues.

Earlier, Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, adviser to the power, energy and mineral resources ministry, had sought budgetary support from multilateral lenders, including World Bank and Asian Development Bank, several times.

The outstanding import bill of the power and energy sector's suppliers amounts to around $2.2 billion, he said.